Valerie Eugenia Patton to Receive an Honorary Doctorate from Webster University
March 16, 2026
Webster Alumna Valerie Eugenia Patton ’82 will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Webster University as part of the 2026 Commencement ceremony. Patton has an extensive record of public service in the St. Louis region, serving as a professor, business executive, and as a board member to numerous non-profit organizations. She also helped many local companies develop inclusive business practices.
"I'm extremely honored and humbled to receive this recognition from Webster. It is not about me! It is about all those who have touched my life in ways I could not imagine as a little Black girl from North St. Louis City,” Patton said. “As my ancestors who have gone before me and for those coming after me, knowledge is a power that has opened many experiences and provided exposure, serving as a transformative catalyst to help people have better lives through empowerment and change. I am because we are, and because we are, I am. Webster played an integral role in the journey, and for that I'm thankful!”
“Valerie Patton lives the values that Webster University has embedded in our mission for over a century,” Webster University President Tim Keane said. “Her positive impact in her community and the world precisely is what Webster's students should aspire to achieve in a life well lived."
Patton is a native of Saint Louis. She holds a master’s degrees from Eden Theological Seminary with an emphasis in community leadership, public advocacy, and ministry in the public square; a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis George Warren Brown School of Social Work with an emphasis in social and economic development; a dual master’s degree from Webster University in management and computer Data management; and a bachelor’s in business administration from Howard University. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Harris Stowe State University.
From 2002 through 2024, she served as the chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer and president of the Greater St. Louis Foundation, Greater St. Louis, Inc. She served as the first executive officer of the organizations initiative to provide a strategic direction and to manage the diversity, equity, and inclusion and workforce/talent for the business community in the Saint Louis region through training, convening, and consulting and regional economic inclusion initiatives. For the 18 years prior to her service at Greater St. Louis, she was the senior vice president of Inclusion & Talent Attraction & ED, St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative. Before that, she held leadership roles at Bank of American and SBC (formerly Southwestern Bell). She was the founder and curator of the Initiative Fellows Program Experience (a multicultural leadership development experience) and Gateway Connections (a welcoming orientation for professionals of color.)
Patton is an ordained Deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri serving at The Episcopal Church of All Saints and Ascension, Northwoods and St. Peters, Ladue. She leads The Patton Partnership LLC where she is Managing Partner. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. She previously was an adjunct instructor at Harris Stowe State College and Saint Louis Community College at Forest Park in the fields of management, accounting, information technology, business administration., leadership, social justice and human diversity, and human behavior in the social environment.
She has served on numerous boards and board committees and is currently on the board of directors for the United Way of Greater St. Louis, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Chair of Board Regent-Harris Stowe State University, and the St. Louis Delta Foundation. She previously served on the boards of Fontbonne University and the Howard University School of Business. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.-St. Louis Alumnae Chapter and member of the Education Committee. She is an active member of the Howard University Alumni Club of St. Louis where she was a past President and creator of the scholarship fund challenge.
Patton will receive her degree during the George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology ceremony at 4 p.m. May 15 in the Webster University Loretto-Hilton Center.