Patty grew up on a farm in the Midwest, where she cultivated a love of all living things. In 1980 she graduated college and entered the healthcare field. During her career she managed two microbiology laboratories. She served as hospital Quality and Safety Manager where she worked to enhance patient safety. In the early 1990’s Patty led the hospital’s beta-site implementation of barcoded patient wristbands and decentralized phlebotomy, publishing a paper on the project in 1995. She later served as Safety Manager for a 400-bed hospital and was Publicity Chairperson for the Local Emergency Planning Committee where she coordinated tri-state emergency preparedness conferences for three years running. 

     After 911 Patty moved to the east coast and served as Executive Director of Safety and Emergency Management for a large pediatric hospital in Washington, DC. There she used her combined knowledge of microbiology, safety and emergency preparedness to help design and build a billion-dollar hospital tower that included an 18-shower mass decontamination and treatment annex, and a built-in surge and isolation capacity to expand a normal 60 bed patient floor into a 240-bed mass-isolation space. Patty conceptualized the means to create a safe emergency backup water source for the three-hospital campus, working with the city engineer to tie the existing aging high water main into a newly planned parallel high water main via an emergency connection valve (east coast infrastructure has issues with aging water lines), thus neutralizing a vulnerability at minimal expense. Patty served as a member of the DC Emergency Planning Committee and as Duty Officer for the city’s healthcare response during incidents and disasters.

     Patty says the fuel that drove her career was the love of her three children and her desire to provide for them. She is blessed with three grandchildren. In 2014 Patty retired and moved to Hawaii where she gardens, volunteers and fosters dogs (207 so far). Patty appreciates having found this wonderful neighborhood and looks forward to serving the community to the best of her ability.