She also has joint appointments with the Colorado School of Public Health, and serves as the Director of Translation and Dissemination Activities for the Colorado Injury Control Research Center. As a senior fellow with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Thao has conducted multiple research and evaluation studies with immigrant and ethnic minority youth. She has 27 publications in peer-reviewed journals related to adolescent development that focus on delinquency and at-risk behaviors, as well as on topics related to cultural influences on the development of wisdom self-transcendence. She is currently the Co-Principal Investigator on a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense/NIFA to develop a mindfulness curriculum for 225 military youth.