Elaine Thomopoulos was co-founder, vice president, and administrator of Greek-American Community Services from inception through 1990. She was also a consultant to the Cultural & Arts Program and held the position of Cultural & Arts Program director on a part-time basis from 2000-2002. Elaine was a member of the Greek-American Nursing Home Committee from inception through 2004 and served as second vice president through much of that time.
Elaine earned a Ph.D. in psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology and was the first director of social services for the Hellenic Foundation. She served as project director of both the Community Advocacy Network and its Assyrian Project for the Elderly, programs of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois. Elaine was a consultant to the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation and Chicago project director of “Innovative Approaches to Dissemination of Caregiver Information through Ethnic and Religious Groups,” a joint project of the American Jewish Committee Institute and Catholic University.
Elaine was the project director for the “Greek-American Women of Illinois” project sponsored by the Greek-Women’s University Club and funded by the Illinois Humanities Council, and the Berrien County Historical Association’s “Greeks of Berrien County, Michigan Project,” which was funded by the Michigan Humanities Council.
Elaine was managing editor of special issues “Books” and “Scientists” for The National Herald, a Greek American newspaper. She has also published articles about Greeks and Greek Americans in scholarly journals, as well as newspapers and magazines. Elaine served as editor of Organizing a Volunteer Program to Serve the Elderly and Greek-American Pioneer Women of Illinois. She is the author of Images of America: St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Resorts of Berrien County, The History of Greece, and Legendary Locals of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Most recently she was editor of Modern Greece, published in 2021.