The Developer

Our children are the living messages we send to a time and place we will never see.

Awards & Achievements

Teacher of the Year (Philadelphia)

Awarded grants for developing educational day care centers in Philadelphia's inner city and for the children of the migrant workers in New York.

Produced 4 documentaries on chemical addiction, a coloring book for children, and the first video newsletter for Ridgeview Institute and its satellite locations, garnering 11 national awards for her work.

Developed The Angeles Awards, an International film award program for students held annually in Hollywood, CA.

Developed Envision Your Future, a strength-based, positive youth program to help our youth create a positive future story by getting in touch with their internal assets and working on their dreams.

Dr. Patty O'Sullivan's undergraduate degree is in Pre-school Education; her advance degrees are in Community Advocacy and Communication.

Dr. Patty, as she is affectionately called by the kids, is more enthused than ever about helping our youth have hope for fulfilling their dreams with Envision Your Future.

Patty O'Sullivan, Ph.D., was born to teach and her gift for teaching has extended far beyond the conventional classroom. Her ability to see a need and meet it, has carried her from the classroom to the inner-city, to the migrant fields, to the chemically addicted, to Hollywood, to needy rural communities, with adjudicated youth and back to the classroom. With Envision Your Future, a positive youth development program/curriculum, Dr. Patty is spreading a wide net to capture youth in the excitement of their dreams. 

The Journey
Dr. Patty received a grant from the Department of Labor to create an educational daycare program for Philadelphia's inner-city children. Her ability to see a project from beginning to end facilitated the successful launching of the first educational daycare of its kind. The richness of this program allowed these children to enter the public school system with enthusiasm and preparedness to succeed.

Her next adventure was working with the children of migrant workers in up-state New York. She developed an educational daycare program for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers with a grant from New York State and worked with these children and their families for 7 seasons. For the first time, these children were introduced to the wonders and joys of books, movies, the beach, libraries, going to the post office and grocery shopping. Prior to this, their experience had been waiting in the fields or being locked in cars while their parents harvested the crops. Dr. Patty's programs brought new light, hope and skills to children who had never been touched in this way.

To communicate the ground-breaking work being done at Ridgeview Institute, in chemical addiction, she produced documentaries that educated both professionals and the public about new attitudes and treatment for addiction.

Taking her skills in production, Dr. Patty went to Hollywood where she helped produce a documentary on the conditions in Appalachia. Family Theater Productions invited her to develop a student film festival for work that took higher ground in the medium and the message. The Angelus Awards went international the first year, with over 200 entries. The film festival continues to grow and is held at The Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood each year.

Today
Dr. Patty's dedication as a child advocate extends to educating and training the significant adults in the life of a child, especially parents and teachers. She keeps her finger on the pulse of what is happening for kids in: the classroom, transition, foster care and the juvenile system.