Donna Patterson, Ph.D

Donna A. Patterson presently teaches history in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. From 2005-2006, she was a visiting fellow in the Department of History at Princeton University.

Professor Patterson's course portfolio includes Health and Healthcare Professionals in the African Diaspora, Francophone Africa, Islam in Black America, and Gender, Identity, and Islam. Her research interests include entrepreneurship, gender, public health, and transnational exchange in the Atlantic World. In addition to projects on traditional medicine in Cuba and African-Asian trading networks, she is revising a manuscript for a book on biomedical pharmacists in Dakar, Senegal and commencing another project on Creole Pharmacists in 19th and 20th century New Orleans. She has recently published essays and articles on pharmacy ownership, Senegal, and Louisiana politics for Endangered Bodies, Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, and the African American National Biography.

In addition to teaching, she provides cultural and trade expertise to domestic and international organizations, businesses, and governments. She has advised businesses and foreign governments on trade, public relations, and humanitarian concerns and while working at the Dakar Embassy, she facilitated the U.S. Secretary of Transportation's Open Skies Summit. She has recently provided televised socio-economic analysis of Post-Katrina New Orleans and contemporary African affairs.

Professor Patterson has also taught courses at Dillard University and the University of Houston.