Patsy Jo Hilliard

Hillard was married to Asa Grant Hillard III, an African American historian, until his death in 2007. They shared four children (Asa IV, Robi, Patricia and Hakim) and eight grandchildren (Maia, Terry, T'Shaka, Foluke, Xavier, Dayo, Shaidah and Asa Pearl).

In 1993, Hilliard became the first woman and African-American to be elected as mayor in the city of East Point, Georgia and in the state of Georgia. Hilliard served as mayor of East Point until 2006, longer than any other mayor of that town. Hilliard hosted the television talk show "In the Know with Patsy Jo" in 2007. She is now the CEO of Waset Educational Production Company, which she co-founded with her husband, and she runs Ancient African Study Tours, which offers educational tours to Egypt.

In 1964, Hilliard worked as a first grade teacher at Bright Functions School in Monrovia, Liberia as a volunteer for the American Women in Liberia organization. In 1975, Hillard was the first African-American women to work as a board member for the South San Francisco Unified School District.

Hilliard, née Patsy Jo Morrison, was born in Denver, Colorado, to parents Elmer Dudley Morrison II and Jessie Morrison. In 1955, she and her future husband, Asa Grant Hilliard III, graduated from Manual High School. She continued her education at Los Angeles State College in 1956 while working as a playground supervisor for the LA school system. Hilliard graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in interdisciplinary social sciences in 1976. In 2008, she was honored with an honorary doctorate from Sojourner–Douglass College.

Patsy Jo Hilliard (b. (1937-08-20)August 20, 1937) is an African-American educator, education administrator, and the former mayor of East Point, Georgia. She was the first woman to be a member of the South San Francisco Unified School District and the first African-American woman mayor of East Point and the state of Georgia.