 Patti O’Brien-Richardson is an author, professor, health researcher, and mom. Her career in health began in sub-Saharan Africa where she lived for over a decade studying health inequalities among women and children, working with families affected by HIV/AIDS, and managing inter-continental humanitarian projects for cities, communities and villages from Zambia to Madagascar. As a social entrepreneur, Patti is the founder of Move it Nation, Inc., a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower families to move their minds, bodies and souls. Patti is also the creator of “Move it-n-Groove it”, a childhood obesity prevention fitness curriculum and video series that has been used in over twenty-five schools, serving over 1,000 children in New York and Boston. She also teaches a course she helped develop entitled “Hair: Culture, Politics and Technology” at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Patti is in the process of completing the final year of her doctoral program at Rutgers University where she studies cultural hair practices and physical inactivity among urban African-American girls. She recently started an afterschool program based on this research called GLAMM (Girls Leading and Moving More) that combines hair and health education with movement and leadership skills. In her spare time, Patti enjoys yoga, baking, biking and gardening with her four daughters, triplets plus one.  Patti, joined by her triplet daughters, will be our keynote speaker for the 10th Annual Blueprint Conference for Middle and High School Girls. We are excited to have Patti share her motivations and also how she's empowering her own girls to be future leaders. For the first time, we have expanded to an additional evening that will involve both parent/guardian and our conference attendees. Friday night will invite both parents and daughters to share questions, concerns and solutions through a night of open dialogue.
To learn more about Patti's work, check out her blog or connect with her on social media at @moveitwithpatti. |
