Patricia A. Ford is the founder and principal of DeElla & Associates, LLC. Founded in 2007, DeElla & Associates is a political strategy and labor relations consulting firm that provides campaign strategy, political and public relations services to an array of clients.

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Ford has devoted more than three decades to advocacy and organizing of working people through the labor movement and civic participation. She served as the Special Assistant to the President for Civic Affairs of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO from 2005 to 2007 and was Campaign Director of Unity ’04, a massive nationwide voter registration/voter mobilization drive coordinated by the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. Their efforts helped generate unprecedented African American voter participation in the 2004 Presidential Election, registering over 100,000 new voters.

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Ford’s new endeavor encompasses a life-long commitment to the labor movement coupled with her passion for justice and equality for all people. She was elected International Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 1996 and reelected in 2000. She was one of the highest-ranking African Americans in a North American union and among the most influential black women in the labor movement. Ford headed SEIU’s government affairs program and coordinated its civil and human rights activism.