Hannah J. Patterson '01

Hannah J. Patterson ’01 was a key leader of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. After leading the Pennsylvania State Woman's Suffrage Party from 1913 - 1915, she became secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association under President Carrie Chapman Catt in 1916. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson selected Patterson as the Resident Director of the Woman’s Committee of the Council of National Defense to organize and coordinate the war work of American women. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for her work. In the 1920s, she headed the women’s department of a leading brokerage firm in Pittsburgh.