Dr. Gracious Thomas is professor and founder Director of the School of Social Work at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. During his over three decades of teaching, research, and practice of Social Work and extension activities he held important academic and administrative positions such as professor, NABARD Chair at Bhubaneswar and Director of two schools and the National Centre for Disability Studies at IGNOU for over twelve years. He has more than seven hundred publications to his credit apart from about eighty educational video programmes. Some of his major contributions to professional social work include the launching of nine programmes of study in social work through Open and Distance Learning from Certificate to Doctoral Degree and the drafting of the Code of Ethics for social workers.