Co-founder of The Working Group in Oakland, California, director/producer Patrice O'Neill has produced national series on PBS for 15 years. Not in Our Town, The Working Group's 1995 story of how Billings, Montana, responded to a rash of hate crimes, which O'Neill co-produced with Rhian Miller, struck a chord nationwide. What began as a half-hour PBS special turned into a ten-year-long national outreach campaign used in over 100 communities across the country. In addition to the follow-up special, Not in Our Town II, O'Neill recently completed the first-ever regional special in the series, Not in Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here, a co-production with KQED-TV in San Francisco.
As part of The Working Group, O'Neill was executive producer/producer of Livelyhood, the ten-part PBS series that explored workplace change. She was executive producer for Test of Courage, a PBS special on diversifying the Oakland Fire Department, produced by Kyung Sun Yu and Gary Mercer. Her other award-winning documentaries with Rhian Miller for the We Do the Work public television series include: Family Fuel: A Coal Strike Story, This Far by Faith and Leaving Home.