Patricia McMahon Hawkins

Patricia McMahon Hawkins (born 1949)[1] is a United States career foreign service officer and member of the U.S. State Department. She was the United States Ambassador to Togo from 2008 to 2011.

Patricia McMahon Hawkins
U.S. State Dep’t photo 2008
19th United States Ambassador to Togo
In office August 22, 2008 – 2011
President	George W. Bush Barack Obama
Preceded by	David B. Dunn
Succeeded by	Robert E. Whitehead
Personal details
Born	1949 (age 71–72) Pennsylvania
Spouse(s)	Richard S. D. Hawkins
Profession	Diplomat

Life and political career

Patricia was born in Pennsylvania. She attended Barnard College and is a graduate of East Stroudsburg University with a bachelor degree in education. She has also studied French at Georgetown University, the University of Dijon, and New York University.[2]

Her career started in the United States International Communications Agency in 1980. At USIA headquarters in Washington, D.C., she was the Country Affairs Officer for the eight countries of Francophone West Africa, and Policy Application and Coordination Officer (PACO) in the office of USIA's Assistant Director. She also served as the Public Affairs Advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the CSCE Conference on the Human Dimension, in Paris in 1989. Her first tour was in Paris, where she served as the Assistant Information Officer and Deputy Press Attaché. She subsequently served as Information Officer in Kinshasa, Zaire, as Public Affairs Officer in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as Cultural Affairs Officer in Bogotá, Colombia, as Counselor for Public Affairs in Abidjan, Cộte d'Ivoire, where she also served briefly as Acting DCM and then for several months as Chargé d'affaires. In 2001, she was posted to the Dominican Republic, as Counselor for Public Affairs. Her most recent assignments have been in Washington, D.C., as Policy Application and Coordination Officer in the Office of Public Affairs of the Bureau of African Affairs, and as a Career Development Officer in the Bureau of Human Resources. During a three-year hiatus from the Foreign Service, Pat served as the Executive Assistant to the President and CEO of Otis Elevator Company, in Farmington, Connecticut.

She succeeded David B. Dunn as the US Ambassador to Togo on August 22, 2008. She arrived at post on September 10, 2008 and presented her credentials to the Togolese President on September 12, 2008.[2][3][4][5]

Family

She is married to Richard S.D. Hawkins, formerly a director of quality improvement for the Otis Elevator Company who quit his job and applied to join the Foreign Service to spend more time with his wife, and has two children, Frédéric and Jessica. Her home in the United States is in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire.

See also

• United States Ambassador to Togo

Notes and references

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Department of State website https://www.state.gov/countries-areas/. (U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets)

1. "Patricia McMahon Hawkins - People - Department History - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov.
2. Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs (17 September 2008). "Hawkins, Patricia McMahon". 2001-2009.state.gov.
3. Gelder, Lawrence Van (7 January 1996). "ON THE JOB;Remembering All the Roads Not Taken" – via NYTimes.com.
4. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080429-
5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2008-12-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)