As an undergraduate at the University of Rochester (Rochester), she co-founded El Tiempo Latino: The Latino Students Voice, which was the first Latino journal at Rochester. The journal addressed the many issues of the burgeoning Latina/o population at the University. During her tenure at Rochester, Patria also led a group of students in a successful protest to compel the university to divest from South Africa as a result of its racist apartheid system.
She received her Bachelors Degree in Political Science with a minor in African-American Studies and her Juris Doctor from Hofstra University School of Law (Hofstra). During her tenure at Hofstra, Patria became intimately involved with the Latino and African American communities there by becoming an active member of both the Latin American Law Students Association (LALSA) and the Black Law Students Association (BLSA). As a second year Law Student, Patria became the president of LALSA where she laid the foundation for an alumni supported scholarship that she helped into fruition as an alumnus. As a third year, she was chosen to participate in the Hofstra University Criminal Law Clinic for the indigent were she served those in need of legal assistance with the dedication and excellence that would mark her career.
Upon graduation, Patria accepted a position as an Assistant District Attorney in The Kings County District Attorney’s Office (KCDA) in 1994. While there, she was promoted to coordinate the DA’s AWARE program. This program instituted the first immediate response program for victims of domestic violence with the use of one-touch pager system. Additionally, she became an avid trial lawyer.
In 1998, Patria left the KCDA’s office only after being recruited by the Deputy Counsel to the Chancellor for the New York City Department of Education (DOE) to join the Chancellor’s legal staff in the Office of Legal Services. She has become an integral part of the Administrative Trials Unit (ATU), which prosecutes DOE employees for engaging in varying misconduct. Her talents were quickly recognized and she was promoted to Assistant Deputy Counsel to the Chancellor, wherein she continued administratively prosecuting cases as well as supervising other attorneys there. Her exceptional skills were recognized by then Board President, Ninfa Segarra who offered her a position as her Special Assistant. After President Segarra’s term ended, Patria returned to ATU where she continues serving the children of New York City in her capacity as Assistant Deputy Counsel to the Chancellor.
Patria is an Adjunct Professor at St. John’s University School of Education where she teaches a course involving legal aspects of school administration.
Patria was born in Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana. She is one of four children with wonderful Dominican parents. Currently, she is married and has three beautiful children.
