Claudia Lynn Thomas was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, New York, by her parents, Charles and Daisy Thomas, and with her older sister, Catharine Thomas. Growing up, Thomas believed her parents were her biggest motivators. Her father, Charles, worked multiple jobs during the depression, and eventually became a welder in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Thomas was also inspired by her childhood pediatrician, Pearl Foster, MD, an African-American woman. In spite of the fact that Thomas' parents were denied higher education, that did not
Education has always been a very important aspect of Thomas' life. Before she and her sister started kindergarten, their mother taught them their letters and numbers. Thomas attended the High School of Music and Art in New York City. She had high enough test scores that allowed her to be awarded a National Merit Scholarship and New York Regent Scholarship. For her undergraduate degree, Thomas enrolled in Vassar College as a math major; however, she graduated and earned her degree in Black Studies. Thomas attended Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her residency at the Yale University Orthopedic Program, making her the first woman to graduate from the program. Thomas is also the first female African American Orthopedic surgeon in the United States.
Thomas commenced her orthopedic residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut in 1975. In 1980, Thomas completed a fellowship at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore in the shock trauma unit. In 1981, she went on to serve as assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore Maryland. In 1991, Thomas earned a position on the Maryland medical Licensure board as a part-time consultant. In 2004, Thomas joined a private practice at the Tri County Orthopedic Center in Leesburg, Florida.

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