The 18th Annual Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award Event
Honoring Dr. Stacey Patton
Dr. Stacey Patton is a distinguished author, journalist, academic, and advocate for adoptees and children who have been abused or neglected. Born in Montclair, NJ, she spent the first five years of her childhood in foster care before being placed with abusive adoptive parents in Trenton, NJ. At age 12 she ran away from their home and spent the next few years shuttled between foster homes and youth shelters before winning a full scholarship to the prestigious Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. Dr. Patton then attended Johns Hopkins University and New York University where she graduated with honors and a degree in journalism. In 2011 Dr. Patton received her PhD in African American history from Rutgers University. Her dissertation is titled – Why Black Children Can’t Grow Up: The Construction of Racial Childhood in America, 1880-1954. Dr. Patton has taught U.S. and African-American history at Rutgers and Montclair State University.
In 2007, before the age of 30, Dr. Patton published her first book, That Mean Old Yesterday, a memoir about her childhood experiences growing up in New Jersey’s foster care system. Her memoir also discusses the historical roots of physical discipline of children in African-American families. Dr. Patton has also written for The New York Times, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, New York Newsday, and is a current contributor to The Crisis Magazine and The Women’s Review of Books. She is the recipient of numerous journalism awards and academic citations and has made numerous media appearances, including NPR, The Brian Lehrer Show, Weekend America and more. In December of last year, Dr. Patton joined The Chronicle of Higher Education as a staff reporter.
In addition to writing and teaching, Dr. Patton works as a facilitative trainer with various national non-profit and state organizations on child welfare issues. In April 2011, she launched www.sparethekids.com, an online portal designed to teach alternatives to physical discipline of children, especially in African American communities which have disproportionate rates of child abuse cases. Because of her childhood experiences, Dr. Patton has made it her mission to use her writing and her voice to be a change maker for abused and fostered children, and all children pushed to the margins of American life.
Be sure to mark your calendar for May 9, 2012, and join us for a celebratory dinner and award reception honoring Dr. Patton.
Our 2012 BBS Honorary Chair is Cokie Roberts, sister of our late founder and award namesake. Learn more about the Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award here, including info on corporate sponsorships and past award honorees.
Register online for tickets and sponsorships today.
Visit the raffle page to learn more about the Womanspace Grand Prize Raffle Trip for Two to Cancun or Punta Cana
