Ms. Pataki was sworn in as Mission Director for Sudan in July 2019. 

From 2018 to 2019, Ms. Pataki served as Deputy Mission Director in Islamabad, Pakistan, where she focused on health, education, stabilization and governance, infrastructure, and operations.

From 2013 to 2018, Ms. Pataki served as Deputy Mission Director and Resident Legal Officer in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, overseeing the USAID mission’s health, education, governance, operations, and legal matters.  From 2012 to 2013, she served as Attorney Advisor in the Office of General Counsel’s Legislation and Policy Division, where she advised USAID’s Offices of Science and Technology and Innovation and Development Alliances (now USAID’s Global Development Lab), as well as the Office of Policy, Planning, and Learning. 

Prior to that, she served from 2009 to 2012 as Regional Legal Advisor in Amman, Jordan, and from 2007 to 2009 in Accra, Ghana, where she covered the West Africa region, including Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Togo.

Before joining USAID in 2006, Ms. Pataki was an Attorney Associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LLP in New York and Washington D.C. from 2001 to 2006. 

From 1997 to 1998, Ms. Pataki worked as Program Coordinator in the Washington office of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a German political foundation, and served as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Dresden, Germany, from 1996 to 1997.

Ms. Pataki is a graduate of Columbia Law School in New York (J.D. 2001) and the University of California at San Diego (B.A. Economics 1996).  She is a member of the New York State and District of Columbia Bar Associations.