The Defense Alliance Team

Patria Lawton is the Business Director, and Marketing and Events Coordinator for Defense Alliance, and a key facilitator for the membership. She has an extensive background in executive level business communications, including marketing, college level instruction, and consulting for Fortune 500 companies.

Pat has experience teaching college level Business Communications, Interpersonal Communication, Small Group Communication, Public Relations, and Public Speaking. She has taught at Minnesota School of Business, Normandale, and is currently a full-time faculty member in the Communication Department at Inver Hills Community College, as well as a graduate level instructor at the University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute.

Pat Lawton has an MBA from Augsburg College, an M.A. with Honors in Communication from Bethel University and a B.A. in Communication Studies and English (with an emphasis in rhetoric) from Gustavus Adolphus College where she graduated Cum Laude. Her graduate thesis focused on the role of communication in appropriating women’s athletics. She has also completed additional graduate work at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She has studied in Greece, Fiji and Morocco and traveled extensively abroad.

Pat is a co-awardee of the 2014 "Progress Minnesota" award and the 2007 SBA Veterans Small Business Champion of the Year Award. In 2014 she was Instructor of the Year at Inver Hills Community College, and in 2009 was Instructor of the Year at the Minnesota School of Business.