Maria Thomas | Managing Director
Halden Atlas

Maria V. Thomas is a recognised culture strategist, award-winning DEI leader, and founder of Halden Atlas, a people and culture advisory firm dedicated to building inclusive, people-first workplaces. She also serves as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisor to London Search & Rescue. With a career spanning EdTech, higher education and professional services in both the US and UK, Maria has led transformative strategies that embed equity into organisational culture and employee experience. She has advised HR and executive leaders across sectors on DEI strategy, workforce engagement, employee resource group design, and cultural transformation. Previously, Maria served as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Manager at Curriculum Associates, an education technology company, where she developed and implemented the company-wide DEI strategy, advanced inclusive digital product development, and received the CEO Award for Diversity and Inclusion. Maria is a published researcher and former lecturer who has taught at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)and Goldsmiths, University of London. She was a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities Bridging Historias Research Grant, and her scholarship has been published in Critical Digital Pedagogy in Higher Education with a forthcoming publication in Postdigital Science and Education. Her current work explores how inclusion, cultural intelligence, and workforce engagement can accelerate innovation in technology-driven and rapidly evolving industries.