Elise Patkotak was born many years ago into a much kinder and gentler world.  Her initial view of life was bounded by the Italian immigrant neighborhood in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in which she was raised and the nuns who taught her throughout her early years.  She is now a recovering Catholic.

In Parallel Logic, Patkotak recounts story of her years in Barrow. She lived in Barrow, Alaska for 28 years, where she was a nurse, health director, social worker, columnist, radio show host, public information officer, city recreation director, and Guardian Ad Litem working with troubled kids in the Barrow Court System. She now lives in Anchorage.

Patkotak belongs to a wide variety of animal welfare organizations and truly believes that the world will be judged by how it treats its most helpless inhabitants, including its elderly, its young and its animals.