| Home > Events > Disease, Disaster, and Democracy, 2006 > Conference Speakers > Ann Patton Ann Patton Summary | Transcript | Panel agenda Professional Biography
Mrs. Patton is a writer, consultant, and program director. She has more than 30 years’ experience in journalism and government, focused on public policy, urban affairs, hazard management, and grassroots community building.She heads Ann Patton Company, LLC, a professional consulting firm. Recent clients include the Institute for Business and Home Safety (Open for Business project); Booz Allen Hamilton for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Domestic Preparedness; Project TAHS (Technical Assistance for Homeland Security) for the U.S. Corporation for National and Community Service; and the Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for the Medical Reserve Corps. She also works with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, specializing in mitigation and long-term recovery planning. She spent 7 months working in Florida on hazard mitigation after the 2004 hurricanes and 2 months in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Mrs. Patton is Founding Director of Tulsa Partners, which includes Tulsa’s Citizen Corps, Medical Reserve Corps, and Project Impact; and Tulsa Partners, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation working to create sustainable communities. This family of programs mobilizes public-private partners and volunteers to create safer, more livable communities and to curb losses from terrorism, crime, and natural disasters. Mrs. Patton has served as a mentor to many communities in the U.S. and beyond. She is a member of the McReady Oklahoma! Committee and is secretary for the Board of Direction of the national Multihazard Mitigation Council. She began her career as a community activist. Her work experience includes 8 years as a newspaper reporter, 3 years as a technical writer, 8 years as staff to local and state elected officials, 8 years as community affairs manager for Tulsa’s Public Works Department, and 6 years as Tulsa Project Impact/Citizen Corps/Tulsa Partners director. She retired from the city in 2004. She was a charter member of the team that created Tulsa’s award-winning flood-hazard mitigation program, which has led the nation since FEMA began rating communities in 1992. FEMA also gave top national honors to Tulsa Project Impact in 1998, named Tulsa national mentoring community in 2000, and cited Tulsa Citizen Corps as a national model in 2003. FEMA gave Mrs. Patton its top national public services award in 1998. She won Oklahoma’s Ben Frizzell Award for leadership in 2003. In 2004 the Oklahoma Floodplain Managers Association gave her its lifetime achievement award; Tulsa Partners Inc. gave her the J.D. Metcalfe Building Bridges Award for community service; and the City of Tulsa named an open-space floodplain park “Ann Patton Commons” in her honor
While she was a Tulsa World newspaper reporter, Mrs. Patton won the first-place national award from the American Society of Planning and two journalism awards from Tulsa’s National Council of Christians and Jews. She has written numerous articles, technical reports, and presentations; special reports on flood mitigation and tornado safety; a political history of the Ku Klux Klan; and a history of water resources in the Tulsa region. She and her husband Bob have 4 children, 8 grandchildren, and a great grandson. |
