Desmond Patton

Desmond Upton Patton is the thirty-first Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor. He holds joint appointments in the School of Social Policy & Practice and the Annenberg School for Communication, with secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine and at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Professor Patton’s groundbreaking research examines the relationship between social media and gun violence, grief, and loss, focusing on how online communities influence offline behavior. His work has made him the most cited and widely recognized scholar in this critical area of social science. Early research focused on detecting trauma and preventing violence on social media has evolved into broader investigations of language analysis and algorithmic bias in artificial intelligence. He currently serves as a member of Spotify’s Safety Advisory Council, the Ethics and Equity Advisory Council (EEAC) at Axon, TikTok’s U.S. Content Advisory Council, and is a trusted advisor to several AI startups.

As a social work scientist, Patton identified that traditional data science methods often fail to capture the cultural and linguistic nuances of predominantly Black and Hispanic youth. In response, he developed the Contextual Analysis of Social Media (CASM) framework, which integrates culture, context, and inclusion into machine learning and computer vision analysis. He is also pioneering a new research agenda on joy, developing a practical and theoretical framework for integrating joy into AI model development as a tool for equity, imagination, and human connection.

Dr. Patton is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, an Obama Foundation USA Leader, a Mozilla Rise 25 Change Agent, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, and one of RockHealth’s Top 50 in Digital Health.