Joyce Thomas was born in Manhattan, New York in 1960. She graduated from Brooklyn College, and though she had not envisioned a career in media, she loved television from an early age. She started working for CBS in 1982 in their magazine division and eventually made her way to a position at local CBS affiliate, WCBS, in operations management. Thomas has worked at CBS for more than 30 years, joining the Guild in 1996 as an Associate Director/Technical Supervisor in the Broadcast Operations Department and currently works as an Associate Director/Technical Manager at the network’s Media Distribution Center in New York.
Thomas has created a prominent career of service to the Guild. She was elected to serve as an Assistant Secretary-Treasurer to the National Board. She has served on three Network Agreement Negotiating Committees and has been elected to the Eastern AD/SM/PA Council nine times, serving three terms as Council Chair. She has served as the Eastern Diversity Steering Committee Co-Chair for four terms and as the Co-Chair for the Focus on Women Committee. For her contributions to the Guild and the industry, she received the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award in 2021.
Thomas has been a member of the Directors Guild since 1996.