Desmond Upton Patton, PhD, MSW

Desmond Upton Patton, a pioneer in the interdisciplinary fusion of social work, communications, and data science, is the Brian and Randi Schwartz University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the School of Social Policy & Practice and the Annenberg School for Communication, and a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine.
Professor Patton’s groundbreaking research explores the relationship between social media and gang violence, focusing on how digital communities shape harmful offline behavior. His early work to detect trauma and preempt violence on social media led to his current roles as a national expert on language analysis, AI bias, and digital well-being. He is a member of TikTok’s U.S. Content Advisory Council, Spotify’s Safety Advisory Council, and the Ethics and Equity Advisory Council (EEAC) at Axon. He also sits on the boards of several AI startups, where he advises on ethical and inclusive innovation.
As a social worker, Patton recognized that traditional data science methods failed to account for the cultural nuances of language used by Black and Hispanic youth. In response, he developed the Contextual Analysis of Social Media (CASM), an approach that centers culture, context, and inclusion in machine learning and computer vision systems. CASM offers organizations tools to better interpret language in digital spaces, reduce miscommunication, and mitigate algorithmic bias.
In 2018, Patton published a landmark study in Nature Digital Medicine identifying grief as a pathway to aggressive communication on Twitter. This work was cited in an amici curiae brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in Elonis v. United States, a case focused on interpreting threats on social media. His research on AI, race, empathy, and violence has been featured in The New York Times, Nature, The Washington Post, NPR, Vice News, and ABC News.
Patton is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in health and science. He is also a Mozilla Rise 25 awardee, recognized for his innovative work shaping a more responsible digital future.
Building on a decade of research into grief and violence, Patton is now leading a new line of inquiry into joy as a framework for healing, resilience, and responsible AI development. He founded Joynet, a research and practice network that equips researchers, technologists, and practitioners to center joy in AI systems and digital technologies. This work reframes innovation by positioning joy as a metric for well-being, safety, and inclusion. Patton also serves as executive producer of the documentary Life of Abundance, which takes viewers on a visual and emotional journey from grief to joy.
Patton is a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He previously served on the Board of Directors at the Columbia Center for Technology Management. He received the 2018 Deborah K. Padgett Early Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR), and was named a 2019 Presidential Leadership Scholar and a Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard Kennedy School.
Before joining Penn, Patton was Professor of Social Work and Sociology at Columbia University, Senior Associate Dean at the Columbia School of Social Work, and Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Data Science Institute at Columbia.