Patricia Powers Thomson
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Phone: (202) 429-3836
E-mail: Contact Public Affairs
Patricia Powers Thomson is executive vice president and chief operating officer of USIP, its second-ranking officer. In this position, Thomson leads the Institute’s internal management team, oversees and integrates substantive programs, and manages growth.
She was previously the partner in charge of the Justice and Courts Account at IBM Business Consulting (previously PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting) in Washington, D.C., where she provided management expertise to a broad range of state, federal, and international clients, including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, and Defense.
Thomson’s areas of expertise include strategic planning, organizational design, and business operations. She has also written extensively on performance management issues. Thomson was a member of Vice President Gore’s task force on reinventing government (the National Performance Review) and was the assistant director of evaluation at the Corporation for National and Community Service, where she played an instrumental role in the start-up of Americorps. She served for four years in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps. Thomson has lived and worked in Portugal, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe.
She holds a B.S. in engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in public policy from Harvard University.
Publications:
- "A Framework for Success: International Intervention in Societies Emerging from Conflict" with Daniel Serwer, in Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World (USIP Press, 2007).
- Civilians Can Win the Peace
USIPeace Briefing (February 2007)
- Results-Driven Organizations: Cascading, Aligning, and Using Performance Information (PricewaterhouseCoopers Training Program, 2001).
- "Performance Management–Managing the Change," National Productivity Review (1999).
- Guide to Naturalization, co-author (Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1998).
- Performance Management Initiatives in America's Cities, Reinventing Government Publication (1996).
