Patricia E. O'Connor, Ph.D., holds her doctorate in sociolinguistics from Georgetown University. At Georgetown University she is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, former Senior Research Fellow of the Center for Social Justice, and former Associate Director of the Georgetown University Writing Program. For over 20 years she directed GU Prison Outreach Programs. She also has served as faculty advisor for GU students' Demeter Educational Project for Women in Substance Abuse Recovery since 1995. In December 2004 O’Connor was named a Mitsubishi Unsung Heroine for her work in substance abuse treatment centers and prisons.  Currently, Dr. O’Connor is researching life stories of those in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse, interviewing those in treatment centers about their experiences of addiction and about their hopes for recovery.

O’Connor has been Co-Director of the Georgetown University Service Learning Institute and founding member and chair of the national service faculty Educators for Community Engagement (formerly the Invisible College). Her research on narratives of prisoners explores the language of violence and speakers' claims about those acts. This research directly stems from her 20+ years of teaching and service in the District of Columbia's area prisons and jails.  O’Connor and Tobi Jacoby co-edited the special Reflections editionPrison Literacies, Narratives, and Community Connections (Winter 2005). Her other publications appear in the Journal of African American Men, Pragmatics, Text , Discourse &Society, Pre/Text and in several edited volumes. Her book on prison discourse, Speaking of Crime: Narratives of Prisoners, (2000) is available from University of Nebraska Press. O'Connor is also co-author of Literacy Behind Prison Walls (1992).