Jacqueline Patterson

Senior Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program

Jacqueline Patterson has been confirmed as our keynote speaker for the Legislative Ask Plenary on Tuesday, April 20.

Since 2007 Patterson has served as coordinator & co-founder of Women of Color United. She 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, emergency response, and environmental and climate justice. Patterson served as a Senior Women’s Rights Policy Analyst for ActionAid, Assistant Vice-President of HIV/AIDS Programs for IMA World Health, Outreach Project Associate for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Research Coordinator for Johns Hopkins University, and as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica, West Indies.

Patterson’s publications/articles include: “Equity in Resilience Building for Climate Adaptation: An Indicators Document” ”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 the People Shall Lead: Centralizing Frontline Community Leadership in the Movement Towards a Sustainable Planet”; “In the Eye of the Storm”, “Our Communities, Our Power”, “Fossil Fueled Foolery”, and book chapter, “Equity in Disasters: Civil and Human Rights Challenges in the Context of Emergency Events” in the 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 Advisory Boards for Center for Earth Ethics and the Hive Fund for Gender and Climate Justice, as well as on the Boards of Directors for the Institute of the Black World, Greenpeace, the Bill Anderson Fund, Peoples Solar Energy Fund, the American Society of Adaptation Professionals, and the National Black Workers Center Project.