Anne W. Patterson

Anne Woods Patterson (born 1949) is an American diplomat and career Foreign Service Officer. She served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2013 to 2017. She previously served as United States Ambassador to Egypt until 2013 and as United States Ambassador to Pakistan from July 2007 to October 2010.

Early life and education Patterson was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas. She attended The Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas. She received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley College and attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for one year.

Career Patterson entered the Foreign Service in 1973. She served as a U.S. State Department Economic Officer and Counselor to Saudi Arabia from 1984 to 1988 and then as a Political Counselor at the United States Mission to the United Nations in Geneva from 1988 to 1991. From 2003 to 2004, she served as Deputy Inspector General of the US State Department.

Patterson became Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs on November 28, 2005, serving until May 2007. President George W. Bush appointed Patterson as the United States Ambassador to Pakistan after Ryan Crocker left that post to become Ambassador to Iraq. She served in Pakistan between July 2007 and October 2010.

In May 2011, U.S. President Obama nominated Patterson to be the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt. On June 30, 2011, the United States Senate confirmed Patterson by unanimous consent to be the United States Ambassador to Egypt.

During the protests that ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi from power on July 3, 2013, Patterson was singled out specially by the protesters for being too close to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. At the same time, she was attacked for presumably conspiring with the opposition, meeting with its leaders, and supporting the protests against the elected president.

On August 1, 2013, Patterson was nominated to serve as the assistant secretary of state in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, which oversees the Middle East. The U.S. Senate confirmed Robert S. Beecroft to succeed her as ambassador to Egypt on June 26, 2014.

Patterson was considered for Defense Undersecretary for Policy under James Mattis; however, she was withdrawn after opposition from Tom Cotton, senator from Arkansas. Some speculated that Cotton favored an anti-Muslim Brotherhood policy and that Patterson's time as Ambassador to Egypt under President Morsi disqualified her in his eyes.

Patterson served on the commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States and as the Kissinger Senior Fellow at the Yale University Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

Personal life Patterson is married to David R. Patterson, a retired Foreign Service officer. The couple have two children.