Patricia Graham (Deceased)

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About Patricia Graham

Dr. Graham grew up in Colorado, spending her early years on both a guest ranch and a working cattle ranch in the Pike National Forest and Douglas County. She is a graduate of Cherry Creek High School, the University of Denver, and Colorado State University. At DU, Dr. Graham studied economics and international relations, earning a BA in 1965. She obtained her master’s degree in agricultural and natural resource economics in 1980 and her PhD. in economics from Colorado State University in 1988.

For eight years, she worked as a city and county reporter, then copy and managing editor of the Littleton Independent and Arapahoe Herald, nationally recognized and award-winning community newspapers in suburban Denver.

In 1974, she joined the senatorial staff for U.S. Senator Gary W. Hart, where she worked on press relations, scheduling, and agricultural policy. She left Hart’s office to do graduate work in economics.

While living in Fort Collins to attend CSU, she owned and operated a small at-home bed and breakfast called “The Duck Inn” near the campus.

During her years as a journalist and Hart staffer, she had several opportunities for international travel and extended her interest in agricultural policy to concerns with economic issues in less developed countries. In 1971, she was part of a small group of friends from DU that climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. Her PhD. dissertation focused on the impact on agricultural aid projects, in particular an USAID project in Lesotho, Africa, on the food and nutrition of a country’s population.

In research and publishing, she has focused on the impact of microfinance on economic development plus economic education, in particular the application of the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) to improve teaching and learning. Recent publications include “Women’s Poverty and Entrepreneurship: Replicating Microloan Programs in the Developed World,” with Linda Manning, The Journal of Economics, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2000; and “Banking and Credit (2000) with Linda Manning, in: The Elgar Companion to Feminist Economics, J. Peterson and M. Lewis, eds., Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar (February).

Dr. Graham served as chair of the UNC Faculty Senate during 1993-94 and was awarded the President’s Special Citation for service in 1994. In 1998, she was awarded a certificate of achievement for Teaching Excellence in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is also an active committee and board member for several community organizations, including the Weld County United Way and the Weld County Area Agency on Aging. She was Economics Department Chair from 2001 to 2005.