Desmond Upton Patton, PhD, MSW

Desmond Upton Patton is the Brian and Randi Schwartz University Professor and the thirty-first Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor. He holds joint appointments in the School of Social Policy and 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 explores the relationship between social media and gun violence, grief, and loss, specifically how online communities can influence harmful offline behavior. This work has established him as the most cited and recognized scholar in this vital area of social science. His early research aimed at detecting trauma and preventing violence on social media has led to his current roles as an expert on language analysis and bias in AI, a member of Spotify’s Safety Advisory Council, the EEAC at Axon, a consultant at TikTok, and a safety advisor for NAVER Z.

As a social work scientist, Patton recognized that traditional data science techniques could not accurately capture key cultural nuances in the language of predominantly Black and Hispanic youth. To address this, he developed the Contextual Analysis of Social Media (CASM) approach, which emphasizes culture, context, and inclusion in machine learning and computer vision analysis.

Dr. Patton is a National Academy of Medicine member, an Obama Foundation USA Leader, a Mozilla Rise 25 Change Agent, a Presidential Leadership Scholar, and a Top 50 in Digital Health at RockHealth. He also serves as an AI start-up advisor.

Funding/Conflicts of Interest: Dr. Desmond Upton Patton discloses the following: Surgo Health- Youth Mental Health Tracker-analysis (paid a fee for analysis); advisory board on TikTok, Spotify, and Axon.