July 9, 2015, Patricia worked with Anna in the same group

Patricia Leidl is an accomplished communication expert whose passion and integrity are inspiring. I first met Patricia in late 2014 through colleagues at Michigan State University and was delighted when she joined our faculty in January, 2015. Patricia’s dedication to teaching was evident from the first week of semester. She worked tirelessly each week to deliver fresh content in the classroom. Patricia’s students benefited from her breadth of “real world” experience and were challenged to think about real world issues for classroom assignments.

My students frequently talk with me about their experiences in other classes and with other professors. In interactions with my students who took Patricia’s advertising class, they described Patricia as inspiring, challenging, fresh, and a leader.

In my own interactions with Patricia, I too can best describe her as an inspiring leader. Patricia’s life and work experiences are so interesting and wide-ranging that she is a fascinating person with whom to work. What I especially like about Patricia is that she is a listener as well as being someone with an educated opinion on almost every topic. She continues to learn from her colleagues while also being a confident leader.

I recently attended the launch of Patricia’s latest book “The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy”. During the book launch I realized just how privileged we were at MSU to have had Patricia teaching our students this year. Patricia has worked in the field in Afghanistan, Yemen, Tajikistan, Zimbabwe and Central America. She has worked for the UN, USAID, and various NGOs. She has witnessed, first hand, events that our students will only ever read about. Having an experienced professional bring these issues to life in the classroom has been of tremendous benefit.

On a personal level, Patricia is a kind and generous person who is incredibly humble about her efforts to improve the world. Though she is confident and assertive, Patricia is also fun to be around. I have learned so much from her as a colleague and a friend. Several of her students have affirmed the that she made a significant impact their future career intentions.