(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA – October 1, 2024)—Tired of feeling helpless about car repairs and maintenance, Patrice Banks realized she was not the only woman who felt that way. Today she is the founder of Girls Auto Clinic, an Upper Darby-based growing community of women and girls who are redefining the automotive world on their own terms. She has been featured on NBC’s “Today,” “NBC Nightly News,” NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” and other national media outlets. 

On Tuesday, October 8, she will give a presentation at Delaware County Community College as part of the College’s annual signature “Dialogues for Diversity” speaker series. The event will take place from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Academic Building, Large Auditorium on the College’s Marple Campus (901 South Media Line Road, Media PA 19063). It will also be available via Livestream (advance registration required). The event is free and open to the public.

Passionate about equality and empowerment of women, business leadership, innovation, technology and STEM education, Banks promotes positive messages for female inclusion and empowerment in the auto industry through her #sheCANic movement. Her Girls Auto Clinic Repair Center in Upper Darby hosts monthly free car care workshops and hosts the #sheCANic Facebook community, which connects female drivers with female mechanics to get answers to their car care questions. Banks is also the author of “Girls Auto Clinic Glove Box Guide” (Atria Books, 2017).

Banks will share with DCCC students and community members her success as an entrepreneur, mechanic and engineer and how she empowers women to have an equal voice and role in all aspects of the auto industry and beyond. A Q&A will follow. The “Dialogues for Diversity” speaker series is supported by DCCC’s Center for Equity and Social Justice.