Thomas has spent more than 25 years in sustainable agriculture, livelihoods, community development and humanitarian response work. Presently based in Santa Barbara, he has many years field experience across Sub-Saharan Africa- with significant time in Mozambique, Uganda and Ethiopia. His focal areas are in urban agriculture, food production system design, post-conflict recovery, organic horticulture, agricultural extension, permaculture, natural resource management and food security.

He spends much of his spare time in these countries climbing the odd mountain and researching succulent plants, primarily aloe, euphorbia and sansevieria.
In Santa Barbara, Thomas is the co-owner and operator of Cold Spring Aloes, a small botanic garden, succulent plant nursery and award-winning garden design business. 

He received the Bouquet of the Year Award in 2017 from the Santa Barbara County Horticultural Society and is a multiple-time winner of the Santa Barbara Beautiful Award. In the last 5 years he has described three new species and one sub-species of aloe from Uganda (aloe wanalensis, aloe butiabana, aloe lukeana and aloe labworana ssp. longifolia), and is a co-author of a Field Guide to the Aloes of Uganda.

SB County Horticultural Society meetings, and non-members are welcome. Entrance and parking are free.