Jacqueline Patterson is the Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program. Since 2007 Patterson has served as coordinator and co-founder of Women of Color United. Recently a global women’s rights consultant, Jacqueline Patterson has worked as a researcher, program manager, coordinator, advocate, and activist working on women‘s rights, violence against women, HIV/AIDS, racial justice, economic justice, and environmental and climate justice.
Patterson served as a Senior Women’s Rights Policy Analyst for ActionAid, where she integrated a women’s rights lens for the issues of food rights, macroeconomics, and climate change as well as the intersection of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Previously, she served as Assistant Vice-President of HIV/AIDS Programs for IMA World Health providing management and technical assistance to medical facilities and programs in 23 countries in Africa and the Caribbean. Patterson served as the Outreach Project Associate for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Research Coordinator for Johns Hopkins University. She was also a US Peace Corps Jamaica volunteer.
Patterson’s publications include “Jobs vs Health: An Unnecessary Dilemma,” “Climate Change is a Civil Rights Issue,” “Gulf Oil Drilling Disaster: Gendered Layers of Impact,” “Disasters, Climate Change Uproot Women of Color,” and “Equity in Disasters: Civil and Human Rights Challenges in the Context of Emergency Events,” a chapter in the forthcoming book Building Community Resilience Post-Disaster.
Patterson holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Alumni Network, the Coordination Team of the Gender Justice Working Group of the US Social Forum, the Advisory Committee for the Grandmother Project, the Steering Committee of the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate Change, and the Board of Directors for the Institute of the Black World and US Climate Action Network.
Contributions to Humans & Nature:
- The Necessity of Harmony for a Sustainable Planet
A response to “What does Earth ask of us?”
Noteworthy Links:
- Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future
A book by Bron Taylor. - Coal Pollution and the Fight For Environmental Justice
An article by Jacqueline Patterson in Yale Environment 360. - A video: Environmental Racism
Jacqueline Patterson weighs in on PBS’s To the Contrary.
