Kelly L. Patterson

Assistant Professor
Senior Research Associate, Center for Urban Studies

office: 291 Hayes Hall
phone: 716.829.2133 ext. 209
email: klp27@buffalo.edu

Education

B.A. (sociology), North Carolina Central University
M.S. (public affairs), University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Ph.D. (urban studies), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Courses

Dr. Patterson will teaches Central City Revitalization in which students learn various approaches to revitalization that are being implemented in many older, declining cities of the northeast and Midwest. In the spring, Dr. Patterson will offer Methods of Community Analysis and Management, a mixed-methods graduate course which focuses on both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. In this course, students use and analyze census data and other urban-focused data sets, do windshield surveys, prepare interview guides, lead focus groups, and conduct in-depth interviews.

Research

Currently, Dr. Patterson's research is focused in two areas. Since receiving a contract from the Federal Reserve Bank and the Wendt Foundation, she and Professor Robert Silverman are assessing the feasibility of creating a housing partnership and housing fund for the City of Buffalo. In addition, the report from this research will include a section which evaluates the capacity of local community-based housing organizations to develop low to moderate income housing. The other vein of Dr. Patterson's research focuses on subsidized housing and the control of neighborhood blight. She is currently evaluating Section 8 housing policy in the context of its effectiveness in alleviating concentrations of poverty in Buffalo.

Public service

Dr. Patterson consults with neighborhood groups on the transformation of their inner-city neighborhoods by examining community-based organizations and active citizen participation models. She is currently part of a team at the Center for Urban Studies that is proposing a North End Regeneration Plan and Implementation Strategy for the Highland area, a poor neighborhood in Niagara Falls , New York .

Selected publications

  • "The Significance of Race in the Low-Income Rental Market of a Rust Belt City" (2005)
  • "Persistence of Rental Housing Inequality in the Erie-Niagara Region: Mobility Counseling and Its Effects." (2005)
  • "A Longitudinal Study of African American Women and the Maintenance of a Healthy Self Esteem," Journal of Black Psychology, Vol. 30. No. 3 (2004)
  • “Paradise Lost: Social Capital and the Emergence of a Homeowner’s Association in a Suburban Detroit Neighborhood” (with Robert M. Silverman), 2003. In Community-Based Organizations in Contemporary Urban Society: The Intersection of Social Capital and Local Context, edited by Robert M. Silverman. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.

Selected Activities, Honors, Awards

Recipient of Jeffrey Campbell Dissertation Fellowship, 1998-99, St. Lawrence University; Recipient of Advance Opportunity Porgram Fellowship, 1993-97, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Recipient of Arthur Alfonso Schomberg Graduate Fellowship, 1991-93, State University of New York at Buffalo.