About Jim Patterson, writer and speaker

James (Jim) Patterson JEPWriter.com 

James (Jim) Patterson is a life member of the American Foreign Service Association. He served in diplomatic posts and assignments in Mexico, Europe (UK, France, The Netherlands), Brazil, Chile, and Washington, DC. He reported from many other countries.

Patterson is an international economist (Auburn University, Foreign Service Institute, Georgetown). Prior to the Foreign Service, he served as an economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, under the leadership of Secretary Howard Malcolm "Mac" Baldrige Jr.

Patterson's father, James G. Patterson, served in Korea in the 1950s, and later with the Alabama Army National Guard during the civil rights struggle. The senior Patterson served at the integration of the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa in June 1963 and in March 1965 at the third civil rights march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The junior Patterson has a non-speaking role as a reporter in the Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning 2015 "Selma." His scenes were filed Father's Day weekend 2014. The senior Patterson died in 2003 and Patterson had his father's Guard photograph in his jacket during filming. In 2018, Patterson was awarded Honorary Colonel in Alabama's National Guard. 

Active in GOP politics since the 1970s, Patterson, an officer with Auburn University Young Republicans, attended the 1976 GOP National Convention in Kansas City as a member of President Gerald Ford's Convention staff and helped the president secure the presidential nomination from California Governor Ronald Reagan. (Patterson's Ford Convention Identification Badge is seen at above.) Patterson worked for the Ford Campaign in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Washington DC during the 1976 presidential campaign.

Patterson held elected office in Indianapolis in the early 1980s and worked for the political campaigns of U.S. Senators Richard Lugar and Dan Quayle. He is a longtime member of the Indiana State Society.

Patterson moved to Washington to work for the Reagan administration in 1984 with Secretary Malcolm Baldrige at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Patterson received several Baldrige productivity awards at Commerce. Patterson held other federal appointments at Agriculture and State. He entered the Foreign Service in 1992. His successful case of employment discrimination based on his minor daughter's cardiac disability appeared in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Service Journal, Federal Times, Jewish Journal, Disability Rag, Mainstream, Employment in the Mainstream, EEOC Trends, and many more. Patterson's daughter, Alexandra Baker Patterson, lived to be 17. Patterson served as a DC City Commissioner from 2000-2002 and during the September 11, 2001 Osama bin Laden ordered attack on the Pentagon. 

In July 1994, U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, before CSPAN's national audience, accused Patterson of "promoting the gay agenda" in the federal workplace and moved to have him fired for prohibited political activity. Patterson survived the political ordeal and has written about it for Government Executive, The Hill, TheHill.com, Washington Times, (Raleigh) News & Observer, LGBTWeekly.com, Bay Area Reporter, Bay Times of San Francisco, and many more.  

During the Clinton impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998-1999, Patterson served as director of constituent services at the Republican National Committee and reported to Chair Jim Nicholson, later the Ambassador to the Vatican and Secretary of Veteran Affairs.

Patterson's controversial marriage to Dutch-born Holocaust survivor Evelyn Y. "Queen of the Corporate Jungle" Davis ended in divorce in 2006. They continued to collaborate on corporate governance until 2012. Patterson regularly appears at screenings of "The Solid Gold Cadillac," the Oscar-winning 1956 film loosely based on pioneering stockholder activist Wilma Soss, on whom Davis fashioned her 50-year career on corporate governance.

Patterson resided in the California Bay Area for several years and reported on the Chelsea Manning controversy for, among others, San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area Reporter, Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, multiple websites, TV and radio stations.  During the controversy, Patterson interviewed and became friends with Daniel Ellsberg, who, in 1971, leaked the Pentagon Papers. 

Patterson was in attendance at Yoshi's Fillmore in San Francisco when alt-rocker Michelle Shocked had a vicious anti-gay meltdown before a predominately gay and lesbian audience. The case made national news and it ended Shocked's career. Patterson reported on the controversy for San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area Reporter, multiple websites, TV and radio. 

Patterson is a member of the California State Society, California Republican Party, DC Republican Party, and a life member of the Republican National Committee. He is a former elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Washington 's Foggy Bottom. He is a Friend of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and a frequent visitor to the Ford and Reagan Libraries. He is a contributor to The Hill, TheHill.com, a voting member of the National Book Critics Circle, a writer, reviewer, and speaker.

Patterson's work has appeared in Des Moines Register, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, National Guard Magazine, New York Episcopalian, The Writer, Washington Window, American Writer, Writer's Digest, The Sun Magazine (Chapel Hill), Foggy Bottom News, Berkeley Daily Planet, many others, and a contributor to many websites. See www.JEPWriter.blogspot.com for recent writing products.

He is frequently mentioned by Leah Garchik in the San Francisco Chronicle. He is a frequent guest on San Francisco radio and SiriusXM, where he is a major stockholder. 

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