He holds a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in political philosophy from Claremont Graduate University, and a B.A. from the University of Dallas. Patrick has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and at the Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard University. He has published in a variety of scholarly and popular journals, and his research has been funded by United States government agencies and the Social Science Research Council. His current project is a book manuscript titled Disasters and the Democratic State: How Bureaucrats, Politicians, and the Public Prepare for the Unexpected.