Derian, Patricia M.

Patricia Murphy Derian was born in New York City in 1929 and and grew up in Virginia, where she received a degree from the University of Virginia School of Nursing in 1952. She is a former Secretary for Human Rights, a veteran of the Civil Rights movement, and an international human rights activist. In early years she acted as consultant to the Office of Economic Opportunity for the oversight of the Mississippi Action for Progress (MAP). She served as Deputy Director for Jimmy Carter's presidential 1980 campaign. She became the first Secretary of Human Rights when Carter formed the State Department's Bureau for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in 1977. During that period she wrote Human Rights: A World Perspective (1978), Human Rights in Latin America (1979), Human Rights in Jeopardy (1980), and Review of Human Rights in Latin America (1980). Since leaving the U.S. government in 1981, she has continued to work as a human rights activist with a number of non-profit organizations. She is married to Hodding Carter III, former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs under President Carter.

Patricia Murphy Derian is an activist, organizer, researcher, and served as the first Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights (HR) and Humanitarian Affairs (HA), a bureau of the executive branch created in 1977 during the Carter Administration.