Patrick Willette Healey

Graduate Research Assistant

Sociology: Gender and sexuality; the role of political art in social movements and public sociology; theorizing institutional DEI interventions; qualitative and quantitative research methods; statistical analysis

Patrick Healey (they/them) is a sociology MA student, currently undertaking thesis research on the DEI interventions conducted by universities in the context of the National Science Foundation's ADVANCE grant program.

They are a proud member of their labor union, the American Association of University Professors. Previously, they served as chair of the Mason chapter of United Campus Workers of Virginia from Oct '24 to May '26.

From 2023 to 2025 they worked as a research assistant to Mason's Director of Faculty Engagement and Wellbeing as part of a team assessing internal qualitative and quantitative data to examine disparities in Mason faculty experience and outcomes due to sexism, racism, and other forms of marginalization.

They were co-editor of the 2021 and 2023 issues of The Sociologist, published by the District of Columbia Sociological Society, where they sought to publish sociological work useful and accessible to audiences outside the discipline.

Healey's research and writing prior to thesis work included:

the links between personal and structural constructions of gender and sexuality in the context of power
the way sociology produces and measures marginalized subjects, and why this is morally fraught
the potential utility of art and aesthetic knowledge to the political projects of public sociology

They earned a BA in Economics from the College of William & Mary in 2016, where they focused on the intersection of labor economics and gender/sexuality.

Healey strives to work and write as a queer feminist situated against all forms of oppression. They are skeptical of the liberatory power of academia in isolation, but believe that publicly engaged research and theory can be part of the path to a more just world.

Selected Publications

Rivera, Milagros, Supriya Baily, Patrick Willette Healey, Trish Wonch Hill, Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, Leigh S. McCue, and Girum Urgessa. 2024. “A Data-Gathering Effort on STEM versus Non-STEM Faculty for Assessing Equity in Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion at a Large R1 Institution.” in 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings. Portland, Oregon: ASEE Conferences.

McCue, Leigh, Girum Urgessa, Tehama Lopez-Bunyasi, Patrick Healey, Patricia Wonch Hill, Jaime Lester, and Milagros Rivera-Sánchez. 2023. “Work in Progress: A Data-Gathering Effort on STEM Faculty Startup Packages for Assessing Equity in Recruitment.” in Promoting Social Sustainability, Cultural Assets, and Assessing Equity and Diversity Index. Baltimore, MD: American Society for Engineering Education.

Education

MA, Sociology, George Mason University (2026)

BA, Economics, College of William & Mary (2016)

Recent Presentations

Rivera, Milagros, Jamie Lester, Patrick W. Healey, Patricia Wonch Hill, Girum Urgessa, Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, Leigh McCue, and Supriya Baily. 2023. “A Playbook for Procuring Faculty DEI Data at a Large Public University.” Presented with Milagros Rivera. ADVANCE Equity in STEM Community Convening (EiSCC), June 6, Durham, NC.