Desmond PattonSpeaker and Booking Agent Information

Desmond Upton Patton, PhD, MSW, is a prominent social work scientist and the 31st Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds joint appointments in the School of Social Policy & Practice (as Waldo E. Johnson, Jr. Professor of Communication in the Annenberg School) and a secondary appointment in psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine. He is the founding director of SAFElab and the Penn Center for Inclusive Innovation & Technology, and Chief Innovation Officer at SP2. His groundbreaking research explores how social media influences well-being, mental health, trauma, grief, gun violence, and joy among youth and adults of color. Patton developed the Contextual Analysis of Social Media (CASM) framework to integrate cultural nuance into AI and machine learning, addressing biases in traditional methods. A highly cited scholar (over 4,500 citations), he advises tech companies (e.g., Spotify, TikTok) on safety and ethics, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, an Obama Foundation USA Leader, and a recipient of numerous honors. His work bridges qualitative methods, data science, and community partnerships.