Patricia Mail

Retired Commissioned Officer, US Public Health ServiceMember since 1967

Patricia Mail (she/her) (B.S. University of Arizona, 1963; MSPE, Smith College, 1965; MPH, Yale School of Public Health, 1967; MA, University of Arizona, 1970; PhD, University of Maryland, School of Public Health, 1996) is an expert in Native American substance use and addressing HIV in the LGBTQ+ population. She has conducted Master's thesis research on the San Carlos (AZ) Indian Reservation, Depth Perception, and the learning of unfamiliar motor skills (MS thesis). Patricia has also studied acculturation and substance use among Indigenous high school students in New Mexico (dissertation), written various journal articles, co-authored an annotated bibliography of Native substance use (before computers), and was the editor of an NIAAA book on Native alcohol use. She has helped train indigenous alcohol counselors in Pacific Northwest tribes and conducted early training in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome among PNW tribes. Patricia’s career in public health afforded her many opportunities to both conduct research and to serve underserved populations. She taught a course in cross-cultural counseling at Seattle University's Alcohol Studies Program in the 1970’s. Has had the privilege of working with several great researchers throughout her career, including Drs. Joy Leland (Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada Reno) and Philip A. May (University of New Mexico).