Patrick, Diane, 1955-

Dr. Diane Patrick is currently on the faculty at the University of Texas at Arlington. She has been on the Arlington School Board and on the Texas State School Board. She was born in Longview, Texas. Her fifth grade teacher and a high school English teacher, who was "merciless," were her early examples as educators. Dr. Patrick believes everyone should have a merciless English teacher. She attended Baylor for her BA degree. After graduating, she was married in December 1965. She did her first teaching in Waco; she remembers her pay there well. The pay for a beginning teacher was $300 a month. While her husband was in dental school, she taught in Richardson, Texas. Dr. Patrick and her husband then went to New England for him to complete a stint in the Air Force, during the Vietnam era. She became a mother and stayed at home during this time. The family returned to the Dallas area in the early 1970s. Dr. Patrick continued to stay at home with her two children, a son and a daughter, and made her entry into the political arena. She ran for and was elected to the Arlington School District Board of Trustees in 1981 and continued until 1992. She won contested races each time. During this period, she went back to work as a teacher and taught in the Birdville Independent School District. Dr. Patrick's interest in administration was sparked during the late 1980s when she worked for 3 years as a Director of Education for the Bedford Meadows Hospital. In 1992, Dr. Patrick changed her focus to the state and national educational issues and became a member of the Texas Board of Education. She retained that position until 1996. Dr. Patrick received her Ph. D. in 1999. She is currently a member of the faculty in the School of Education at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her areas of interest include charter schools, administration, and teacher development.