Patterson is the Associate Director of the Center for Security Studies and  Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and Professor of the Practice of International Affairs in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She is the author of The Challenge of Nation-Building: Implementing Effective Innovation in the U.S. Army from World War II to the Iraq War (Rowman & Littlefield). Most recently, she served as the Deputy Director in the Office of Peace Operations, Sanctions, and Counter Terrorism at the Department of State.

A retired U.S. Army officer with more than 22 years of experience, she served in overseas assignments in Thailand, Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Her previous jobs include: Strategic Advisor in the Commander’s Initiatives Group, Headquarters, International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan; Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the National Defense University; economic advisor to the 1st Armored Division while deployed to Iraq; Assistant Professor of Economics and Comparative Politics, Department of Social Sciences at West Point; and CFR International Affairs Fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman and the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group.

She holds a Ph.D. from The George Washington University in National Security Policy, a M.S. in Engineering Management from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and a B.S. in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.