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Hi, I'm Pat!
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With 15 years of experience in equity and justice-based education, research, and advocacy, I bring a diverse skillset to any projects aiming for deep institutional transformation and community-based learning in anti-racist, inclusive practice. As the Assistant Director of Academic Programs in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies, and the Center for Gender in Global Context at Michigan State University, I collaborate with our leadership and affiliates to manage and develop our academic programs, student success initiatives, course development, and global educational programming.
As an instructor in our programs, I am responsible for designing and teaching our large open enrollment courses on social justice 101, specialized research seminars in topics like reproductive justice, and leading or developing study abroad programs that center global experiences of women and LGBTQIA2S+ communities—all with the goal of connecting scholars, students, and community stakeholders with feminist knowledge to advance social change.
I also serve as the advisor to our diverse undergraduate and graduate community of over 400 students, and since 2019 have support nearly 750 scholar-activists to graduation from our programs and on to law school, medical school, as well as careers nonprofits, international NGOs, education, and beyond. Supporting our graduate programs in Women’s and Gender Studies as well as Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change, I have managed the award of over 60 dissertation fellowships totaling $800,000 - research ranging from interventions to reduce health inequities in pregnancy outcomes for Black women, to the gendered nature of rights to water in the global south, and dozens more dissertations that will launch future careers in areas of DEI.​
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With graduate degrees in ethics and feminist theory, and more recently public health with a focus on health equity and gender-inclusive care, my expertise combines frameworks from Black feminisms, queer theory, and disability justice to advocate for tangible equity solutions to social problems rooted in historic justice, particularly in areas related to health and wellbeing.
My consulting work has included: Content expertise for inclusive language/communication guides, NIH grant support for gender inclusive education in healthcare, inclusive system design on platforms ranging from the Microsoft Teams Pronoun update, to co-authoring the MSU system-wide policy on name, gender, and pronoun data usage and display.
Let's talk more!
Interested in learning more about how my expertise in health equity and inclusive communication can benefit you or your organization? Submit the form below to connect with me, and I will be in touch!
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