Bowen Center for the Study of the Family

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Faculty

Georgetown Family Center Faculty

Patricia A. Comella, JD

Patricia A. Comella became a faculty member of the Georgetown Family Center in 1993. Her areas of interest include:

Applying Bowen theory to understanding nonfamily relationship systems, particularly work systems, as emotional systems;

Fostering an ongoing, interdisciplinary dialogue with scientists and researchers studying nonhuman behavior and functioning from a natural systems perspective; and

Encouraging research into both human and nonhuman relationship systems using Bowen theory as a guide.

She was a co-organizer of the Family Center’s 1995 Conference on Organizations and 1998 Conference on the Workplace as a Living System. She was a lead editor of The Emotional Side of Organizations, the published proceedings of the 1995 conference. She was a co-organizer of the 1996 and 2000 conferences on Relationship Systems and Individual Variation in Functioning, as part of fostering an ongoing dialogue with the natural science community.

She is a co-organizer of the Family Center’s annual research workshop, a forum for the presentation of ideas about research applications of Bowen theory. In addition, she serves as an editorial consultant and has been a regular contributor to Family Systems, A Journal of Natural Systems Thinking in Psychiatry and the Sciences.

Mrs. Comella brings to her efforts years of interdisciplinary experience both in the United States and abroad in the public sector with NASA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of State. In the private sector, she has done legal, regulatory and management consulting in the practice of nuclear energy law. She received an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Hofstra University and a law degree from Georgetown University. She has also done graduate work in computer science and probability theory.