Thomas Reefe

Background

About Thomas Reefe

Tom has been involved in community volunteer work and leadership issues for over 45 years. While in graduate school at UC Berkeley in the 1960s he was a community organizer, anti-war activist, and a college and university teacher of African History. His education was interrupted by military service in Vietnam as a US Army staff officer, where he served with distinction as a member of the loyal opposition. He received his Ph.D. in African History in 1975. Between 1974 and 1993 Tom was a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then Director of the Career Services Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Along the way he lived and did research with his family in England, Belgium, France, Congo (Kinshasa), and Cameroon. He graduated from the first Leadership Santa Cruz County class in 1986, directed the program twice: 1987 - 89 and 1993 - 2004, and founded Leadership Redwood City. Tom recently retired as the Director of the Seniors Council Foster Grandparent/Senior Companion Program and continues as the founding Director of the Seniors Council In-Kind Donation Program in California's Monterey Bay Area and Silicon Valley. He is also an organizational development consultant to nonprofit organizations and gives talks and workshops on job-seeking strategies and the best ways to gain admission to competitive graduate and professional schools. Friends sometimes accuse Tom of being a workaholic. He wrote so many academic and career development books and articles of limited circulation that he has been accused of never having an unpublished thought. He is loquacious, and his resume is way too long. But that’s simply because Tom is restless, loves his jobs, loves to write, loves the people he works with, and likes to stir the pot. Tom has a good sense of humor and promises not to take himself too seriously and hopes you won't either.