Andrea Thomas is the CEO and Co-Founder of ARMOUR Families: United to Eliminate Fentanyl Poisonings and Overdoses, a groundbreaking nonprofit dedicated to bold, nontraditional solutions that stop synthetic drug poisonings at the systems level. ARMOUR is building a team of data professionals, scientists, and prevention leaders, working at the intersection of science, policy, education, and public health to drive innovation in the fight against fentanyl and emerging synthetic drugs.
Andrea’s mission began after the tragic loss of her eldest daughter, Ashley, in 2018, when Ashley unknowingly took half of a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl. Determined to prevent other families from facing the same devastation, Andrea founded the Voices for Awareness Foundation, followed by Project Facing Fentanyl, now the most extensive grassroots fentanyl awareness campaign in the United States, with over 3,000 signed impacted family members. Andrea and the Facing Fentanyl team work alongside a distinguished advisory board of leaders from federal law enforcement, public health, and medicine.
Her leadership established National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day on August 21—recognized by the U.S. Senate—and brought its flagship Times Square event to life. Andrea began her advocacy at congressional briefings for both the U.S. House and Senate, addresses the crisis quarterly at FBI Quantico, and partnered with the DEA under a formal MOA to deliver fact-based prevention to communities nationwide. She also serves on the Colorado Cold Case Oversight Task Force, holds an advisory board position for the Partnership for Safe Medicines, and leads the Colorado Coalition for Families Impacted by Fentanyl.
Andrea is a powerful legislative voice for change. She was heavily engaged in critical measures, including closing the de minimis loophole, supporting the passage of the HALT Fentanyl Act, advancing laws to stop the sale of illegal pill presses, and promoting alternative pain management choices to reduce reliance on addictive opioids. Her work has bridged grassroots advocacy with global accountability—coordinating impacted families to appear before the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and in 2024, partnering with Wiley Rein LLP to file the first-ever Section 301 trade petition against China’s role in incentivizing fentanyl precursor production.
Through ARMOUR Families, Andrea and her co-founders advance the next frontier of prevention—integrating science, data, and policy innovation to create lasting structural change. Her vision remains unwavering: to save lives, honor those lost, and build a future where children, families, and communities are no longer at risk from a crisis that can—and must—be stopped.