Patricia M. Derian

Patricia M. Derian
Assistant Secretary of State Patt Derian and President Jimmy Carter, 1977
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
In office August 17, 1977 – January 19, 1981
Preceded by	James M. Wilson, Jr.
Succeeded by	Elliott Abrams
Personal details
Born	Patricia Murphy (1929-08-12)August 12, 1929 New York, New York, U.S.
Died	May 20, 2016(2016-05-20) (aged 86) Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Paul Derian Hodding Carter, III
Education	University of Virginia School of Nursing

Patricia Murphy "Patt" Derian (August 12, 1929 – May 20, 2016) was an American civil rights and human rights activist, who fought racism in Mississippi and went on to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1977 to 1981. She was, remembered The Times of London, "a courageous champion of civil rights who took on some of the world’s most brutal dictators in her role as a senior American diplomat."

Patricia Murphy was born in New York City and grew up in Danville, Virginia. She was educated at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, graduating in 1952. She married Paul Derian following graduation, and worked as a nurse. She was a supporter of the Civil Rights Movement.

in 1959, she moved to Jackson, Mississippi. She volunteered in head start, and supported public school desegregation. Derian helped organize the Loyalist Democrats (not to be confused with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party) as a challenge to the state's all-white official delegation and was elected as one of Mississippi's delegates to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. She remained active in civil rights in the 1970s, serving as president of the Southern Regional Council and was a member of the executive committee of the American Civil Liberties Union.

During the 1976 U.S. presidential election, Derian was deputy director of the Carter-Mondale campaign. After Jimmy Carter won that election, he nominated Derian to be Coordinator for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. President Carter, however, had the post elevated to that of Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs effective August 17, 1977, and Derian served in that capacity for the remainder of the Carter administration. In this post and as head of the new Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the United States Department of State, she worked to improve policy coordination on humanitarian issues such as human rights, refugees, and prisoners of war.