She has always been willing to enter into my own interests and provide feedback on my research, even when it is removed from her own. In fact, when working on my dissertation proposal Patricia would often read up on the topic (far removed from her research) in order to become better acquainted with the literature and point me towards readings I might have missed.

When you need her time, she is very generous.

While sometimes severe her feedback is always to the point and ultimately, an injunction to keep moving. Underneath this one gets the sense, as her student, that she truly believes in your abilities, potential, ideas and projects.

Her style is supportive and encouraging, and yet she has a bit of a stubborn streak; she believes in us, knows that we can do better, and, thus, insists that we work our butts off and really achieve what we are capable of.

I have always felt that Patricia has seen me as someone deserving of respect.

Patricia earnestly helped me to understand what a careful researcher would do in each case and how we can sophisticatedly move from “statistics” to “sociology.”

I truly believe that Patricia has and will continue to help me become a better sociologist than I could otherwise be.

I believe that her tireless efforts have been a tremendous asset to our graduate students and this department and, as such, we should recognize her for everything she has done.

Though I think that in our department Patricia has often been sought out for her methodological expertise she is truly a woman of ideas. Her relentless questioning and prodding of my theoretical approaches, both in papers and my dissertation topic has made my work more rigorous and, put simply, better than it ever could have been without her feedback.