Patrick Dowd

Patrick Dowd
Patrick Dowd speaks at a podium at an event in 2013.
Member of the Pittsburgh City Council from the 7th District
In office January 7, 2008 – July 10, 2013
Preceded by	Leonard Bodack, Jr.
Succeeded by	Deborah Gross
Member of the Pittsburgh Board of Education from the 1st District
In office December 1, 2003 – December 3, 2007
Preceded by	Darlene Harris
Succeeded by	Heather Arnet
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of Missouri

Patrick Dowd (born 1968) is a Democratic Party politician in the United States. From 2008 until 2013, he served as a member of the Pittsburgh City Council from District 7, which includes the neighborhoods of Bloomfield, East Liberty, Friendship, Garfield, Highland Park, Lawrenceville, Morningside, Polish Hill, and Stanton Heights.

Dowd was raised in Chesterfield, Missouri and earned a B.A. from the University of Missouri. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1991 to study with Fritz Ringer in the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1999. He has taught history first at Winchester Thurston School and then at The Ellis School. He is married to Leslie Hammond, who also graduated from the University of Pittsburgh before becoming a lecturer in the history department. They have five children and live in Highland Park.

In 2003, Dowd won a four-year term on the Board after defeating incumbent Board President and Democrat Darlene Harris in an upset.

As a candidate for school board, Dowd pledged to restore accountability to the system and in an intensely heated January 26, 2005 board meeting.

Dowd led a five members coalition to removing Dr. John Thompson as the Superintend of the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The board launched a national search for a superintendent. The board hired Mark Roosevelt.