Patricia O'Connor (educator)

Patricia Goosey O’Connor (born October 2, 1940) is an American educator and the founder of the now-defunct Fashion Careers College (FCC) in San Diego, California.

After graduating from San Diego State University in 1963, O’Connor began her teaching career in the San Diego Unified School District. She taught for one year at the Berkeley Unified School District before returning to San Diego in 1965.

She later accepted a part-time position at Patricia Stevens Modeling School, where she helped develop a new fashion merchandising program. She worked there for nine years as director and instructor of the program before establishing Fashion Careers College in January 1979 in Mission Valley. In 1984, the college moved to 1923 Morena Boulevard in San Diego.

O’Connor has been involved in various aspects of the fashion industry and education. She has served on the Joint Committee to develop a Master Plan for Education (Kindergarten through the University of California), on the advisory board of the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, and on the Consumer and Family Studies Division and Vocational Education Board for the San Diego Unified School District. She was a member of the Board of Directors of Educational Talent Search and Fashion Group International of San Diego, Inc.^[1] She was also appointed chair of the Board of Directors of the American Friends of the Zandra Rhodes Museum in London.

O’Connor created the Annual Golden Hanger Fashion Awards Gala^[2] and served as its chair for 23 years. She also launched an annual event at the Timken Museum of Art called The Art of Fashion, which featured fashion design students presenting interpretations of costumes depicted in works from the museum’s permanent collection. In 2009, she was appointed to the Timken Museum’s Board of Directors and has also served as a docent and guest lecturer there.