Professor Emerita Patricia O'Brien earned her initial degree from Monash University, a Master of Education from the University of Oregon in the late 1970s, and a PhD from the University of Queensland on the development, maintenance, and efficacy of citizen advocacy. Her career commenced as a special education teacher in Victoria, Australia, where she won the Rotary Teacher of the Handicapped Award. She established Victoria's first Citizen Advocacy program in 1981 through a competitive grant during the International Year for Disabled Persons and lectured at Victoria State College, now Deakin University. In New Zealand, she led deinstitutionalization projects at IHC New Zealand, transitioning more than 120 individuals from long-stay institutions to community living. She obtained a Health Research Council grant to assess outcomes, demonstrating marked improvements in quality of life, such as individuals gaining personal possessions and social skills. At Auckland College of Education, O'Brien served as Dean of Postgraduate Studies and Research and co-developed New Zealand's first degree in Human Services. From 2001 to 2007, she directed the National Institute for Intellectual Disability at Trinity College Dublin, developing Europe's first accredited university qualification for people with intellectual disabilities and securing a Marie Curie grant for inclusive research.

In 2009, O'Brien became Executive Director of the Centre for Disability Studies, affiliated with the University of Sydney's Sydney School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, leading its mission of 'Building Capacity for Change' until retirement in September 2020. Her research focuses on disability studies, inclusive research with people with intellectual disabilities as co-researchers, individualized funding schemes, inclusive education, community participation, advocacy, and service design. Key publications include 'People with Intellectual Disability Experiencing University Life: Theoretical Underpinnings, Evidence and Lived Experience' (2019), 'Inclusive Research: Is the Road More or Less Well Travelled?' (2022), 'Inclusive Research and Intellectual Disabilities: Moving Forward on a Road Less Well Travelled' (2022), and 'From Inclusive Research to Inclusive Evaluation: Empowering People with Intellectual Disabilities to Shape the Services They Use' (2025). She co-edited three books on value-based inclusion and guest-edited two special issues on inclusive research for Social Sciences. O'Brien initiated the 'uni 2 beyond' program at the University of Sydney, awarded the National Disability Award in 2017. A Fellow of the Australasian Society of Intellectual Disability (FASID), she received the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2023 for service to people with disability through research and education. She serves on boards of Achieve Australia, The Achieve Foundation, and Good Directions.

Professional Email: patricia.obrien@sydney.edu.au