Donna A. Patterson, PhD
Dr. Donna A. Patterson is a Professor and is the Chair of the Department of History, Political Science, and Philosophy at Delaware State University. She also directs the Africana Studies Program. Dr. Patterson is the author of Pharmacy in Senegal: Gender, Healing, and Entrepreneurship. She is currently working on projects, one on pandemics (Ebola and COVID-19), and another on Black Texans. Patterson is a non-residential Future Security Program Fellow at New America—a think tank in Washington, DC.
Dr. Patterson has published scholarly articles on pharmaceutical markets, women pharmacists and Ebola in the Journal of Women’s History, Anthropologie et Santé, Journal of Global Health Reports and the Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved. Recent academic publications include articles on “Women in Senegal” for the Oxford Encyclopedia of African Women’s History, “Small State, Big Impact: Delaware’s COVID-19 Response,” for the World Medical and Health Policy Journal. She is the editor of a book series: Routledge Research in Health and Healing in Africa and the African Diaspora. Dr. Patterson teaches courses in African, African Diaspora, and African American history and politics and global health.
Patterson regularly participates in meetings in the U.S. and abroad on a variety of topics. For instance, 2022 and 2023, she’s given talks and participated in public and private briefings on COVID-19. She’s also recently given talks and workshops on Juneteenth, Ebola, and health equity, and moderated a panel on democracy in the US. In December 2022, she moderated a side event during the African Leaders Summit in Washington, DC and in February 2023, she spoke on a panel, “Next Steps After the African Leaders Summit” at USGLC’s Mid-Atlantic Summit in Wilmington, DE.
In addition, Dr. Patterson moderated a panel on African Diaspora Equity in Nairobi, Kenya for UNFPA. She’s given lectures and workshops to myriad places including Arizona State University, the University of London, Wesleyan University, Bank of America, Bonaventure, and elsewhere. Her media commentary on current events, global health, pandemics, international security, and racial and health equity has appeared at Slate, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Christian Science Monitor, Globe and Mail, San Diego Union Tribune, Nieuwsuur, New America Weekly, Huffington Post, Foreign Policy, SCMP, Vox, KJZZ (Phoenix NPR), Delaware Public Media, The Appeal, Delaware State News, CBS-3 Philadelphia, Volkskrant, Agence France Presse, and in other outlets.
In addition to her academic work, Patterson provides consulting expertise on a variety of issues to corporations, NGOs, law offices, and government agencies. She has provided counsel on COVID-19 pandemic response and to medical professionals working in West Africa during the Ebola epidemic. She has also consulted on U.S. corporate investment in and relocation to West Africa, Sahel instability, and public health in the Horn of Africa. She worked at the U.S. Embassy in Senegal where she advised businesses and government representatives on public relations, trade, and humanitarian concerns and reported on women’s economic activity in rural and urban Senegal. While there, she was of the lead organizers of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation’s Open Skies Summit in Senegal. She also previously worked for a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. and she previously taught at Wellesley College. Dr. Patterson is on the Planning and Monitoring Board of JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research in Mysuru, India and on the advisory board of the Mitchell Center for African American Heritage in Wilmington, Delaware. Similarly, she is on the editorial advisory boards of Africa Today and the World Medical and Health Policy Journal. Patterson has received fellowships and grants from Fulbright, the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Princeton University, Wilson Center, New America, the West African Research Association, Kelly School of Business, and the Delaware Department of Education.
For more information, you can visit her website. For consulting opportunities and workshops, you may contact her directly. For speaking engagements, she is represented by CCMNT Speakers Bureau.
Contact
Office: Department of History, Political Science and Philosophy, ETV Building
E-mail: dapatterson [at] desu.edu
Administrative Secretary, Ms. Monay Cummings, 302-857-6621; monaycummings [at] desu.edu