Sen. Patrick Dougherty, a Democrat, represents part of St. Louis City in the Missouri Senate. He previously served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 1979 to 2001.

Sen. Dougherty has been responsible for numerous children/family related bills from rewrites of child custody/visitation laws, to adoption, child protection, daycare, and child abuse prevention laws. He has also successfully sponsored many environmental bills. Other areas of interest include health care, cancer, genetics, domestic violence, and St. Louis City neighborhood issues.

Sen. Dougherty is a member of the following boards/advisory boards: Salvation Army Hope Center; American Lung Association; Fanning Community Education Center; Children's Trust Fund; United Way Government Relations; Patient Advocacy Foundation; St. Louis Crisis Nursery advisory board; St. Louis CASA; Nurses for Newborns; National Conference of State Legislatures; St. Patrick Center; Missouri Energy Resources Project; and several community corps. His awards include: the 1999 Distinguished Legislator award, NAMI; 1999 Children's Hero award, Child Daycare Association award; 1999 Volunteer Advocate, Cancer Society; Ann Dandurant award, Prevent Child Abuse Missouri; 1998 Heroes award, Citizens for Missouri's Children; Political Advocacy and Legislative Achievement award, Adoption and Foster Care Coalition of Missouri; and Legislative Friend to Animals, Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation. Other awards include: the American Humane Society; the American Cancer Society; Missouri Women's Network; Waste Control Coalition; Reform Organization of Welfare; MASW; Silver Haired Legislature; Sierra Club; Coalition for the Environment; MoPIRG; Animal Alliance of Missouri; and Center for Policy Alternatives.

Currently, Sen. Dougherty serves on the National Conference of State Legislatures' (NCSL) Foundation and is also a member of the Foundation's Economic Development committee. He is a member of the ASI Children, Families and Health committee and the AFI Environment committee. He is a former member of the Executive committee as well as vice-chair of ASI and past chair of the AFI Environment committee.

Sen. Dougherty received a bachelor of arts degree from Quincy University in 1970 and attended Kenrick Theological Seminary. He is a former DFS caseworker.

Born June 30, 1948, in Decatur, Illinois, Sen. Dougherty currently resides in St. Louis with his wife Beverly. They have three children: Erica, Bridget and Elizabeth.