Bob Patterson, editor of The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy, has served as an adjunct research fellow of the Howard since 2004, sharing with Bryce Christensen the responsibility of researching and writing the popular New Research section of the Howard Center’s flagship publication.

Since being named editor in 2009, Bob executed the reconfiguration of the former monthly newsletter into a quarterly journal that enhances the capacity of the Howard Center to shape public opinion and public policy. Both print and online versions represent our chief instrument for communicating the latest research, the best policy analysis, and the sharpest arguments to restore the child-rich, married-parent family as the cornerstone of American society.

Bob brings to the Howard Center more than a dozen years of senior-level policy and communications experience in Washington, D.C. Bob served in the George W. Bush Administration as the senior speechwriter at the Small Business Administration (2008-09) and as a senior advisor and speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2004-08), where he served Wade F. Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families. He also served as a staff consultant to the White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth.

Prior to his years of public service, Bob spent a year at the Heritage Foundation where he oversaw the editorial preparation for the successful 2002 launch of <familyfacts.org>, an online research tool that makes the world of social science research accessible to the nonspecialist. In addition, he served four years as senior director of policy publications at the Family Research Council, where among his many duties was as editor of the Council’s then flagship bimonthly publication, Family Policy, and where he raised the profile of social science research in the Council’s papers and publications. He also served as a speechwriter to public affairs commentator Charles W. Colson.

On top of his duties at the Howard Center, Bob is an adjunct professor of government at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, where he teaches political rhetoric and speechwriting. In addition to The Family in America, his writings have appeared in National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, Touchstone, Book and Culture, The Nicotine Theological Journal, and Christianity Today.

Bob holds degrees from Philadelphia Biblical University (B.S.), Wheaton College (M.A.), and Westminster Theological Seminary (Th.M.). He lives in Leesburg, Virginia, with his wife of 30 years, Mary Alice (nee Piepgrass). They are the proud parents of three adult children, Michael, Jonathan, and Megan.