Patricia Stocker

Pat currently works for The Conference Board in New York as Program Director for the Leadership Council on Advancing Women, a group representing the top women from 30 large companies, and as Director for the annual national Women’s Leadership Conference.  She has spent her lifetime as an advocate for women in both her professional life and her volunteer activities. Pat is also currently a consultant for the Office of Executive Programs at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland where she previously served as Associate Dean and Director of Executive Programs. She is a member of the Task Force on Women’s Initiatives for the Robert H. Smith School of Business. She also previously taught at Georgetown University in Washington, DC as well as at The University of Denver, where she was honored as the outstanding business professor of the year.

She has served as Senior Executive Education Consultant for Marriott International (including Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott Vacation Club businesses) since 1990 and also served as Executive Education Consultant for Lockheed Martin, directing the Lockheed Martin Executive Leadership Program (ELP), the corporation’s most senior executive education program. In addition, she has served a limited number of other clients, including Aetna Insurance, Honeywell, PepsiCo, Host Marriott, Hess Corporation, Capitol One, FedEx, AARP, Volunteers of America, the US Postal Service, and a few other nonprofit organizations.

She served as president of AAUW Maryland (American Association of University Women) from 2012 - 2014 and is currently president of the Bethesda/Chevy Chase branch. She served for 11 years (July 2001 – July 2012) as a Trustee for Suburban Hospital – Johns Hopkins Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, and was Vice Chairman of the Board. She was recently named an Emeritus Board Member, the only woman who has received that designation.  She also served on the Board of Interfaith Works in Montgomery County, Maryland, and on the National Governing Board of Common Cause. 

She received her Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the first woman to complete the marketing doctoral program, and was honored as the outstanding doctoral student. She received her MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, where her concentrations were finance and management. Her undergraduate degree is from North Dakota State University from which she recently received the Alumni Achievement Award, the university’s highest recognition.

Dr. Pat Stocker has a lifelong interest in music.  She studied piano and performed the Mendelsohn piano concerto with the orchestra as a senior high school student in Fargo, ND.  Her father was director of music at First Methodist Church in Fargo for more than 25 years, and she was active in all of the choirs in the church.  She also sang professionally, working for WDAY television in Fargo as staff vocalist, a position previously held – much earlier - by Peggy Lee.  She minored in music at North Dakota State University and was honored as the top music student there.  She was named to Sigma Alpha Iota, the honorary music fraternity.  At Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda she chaired the Worship & Arts ministry for many years, advocating for increased arts activities.  She considers herself an enthusiastic audience member rather than a performer at this stage.

She is married and has three adult children and four grandchildren.