Patrice Kelly is the Director of the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, where she has worked for more than a dozen years.A graduate of Boston College, and member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Ms. Kelly received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center. She has worked for Senator Ted Kennedy, the Supreme Court of the United States, on Wall Street, and in law firms in Washington, DC, before beginning her DOT career at the FAA.As an FAA enforcement attorney, Ms. Kelly began working with the industry drug and alcohol testing regulations more than 25 years ago. She was the first attorney to revoke an air carrier’s certificate for failure to implement drug and alcohol testing, and she initiated the FAA’s first civil penalty cases enforcing the drug and alcohol testing regulations. After moving to ODAPC, she has worked closely on all regulations issued and has been the decision-maker on several Public Interest Exclusions against non-compliant service agents who posed a significant threat to safety. Updated: Monday, April 9, 2018
