Dr. Kozak is the Senior Advisor to the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In this role, she works closely with USPTO leadership to help design and implement programs and initiatives to advance the Administration’s priorities for bringing innovation to impact.
Prior to joining the USPTO, Dr. Kozak served as an Application Scientist across the Americas for a particle analysis instrumentation start-up company. She joined the USPTO in September 2014, initially serving as a patent examiner before becoming a primary patent examiner in 2018, and supervisory patent examiner in mechanical technologies in 2021. During Dr. Kozak’s career at the USPTO, she has also served on career details in the Technology Center Quality Assurance Specialist shop and Patent Training Academy. She is a member of the User Centered Design Council, graduate of the Aspiring Managers program, and has participated for several years in the USPTO Mentoring and Career Coaching Programs. Dr. Kozak was recently a mechanical representative for the Joint Labor Management Committee, and has been a long-time representative on the Board of Directors and member of the Education Committee for the Patent and Trademark Office Society.
Dr. Kozak has helped develop and contribute to a variety of initiatives across the agency, including the recent Intellectual Property (IP) Champions program and Impact of Clear Prosecution training in Patents. She received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from the University of California, Davis, and Doctor of Philosophy in Bioengineering from the University of Queensland in Australia. Dr. Kozak recently completed a certificate program on Patent Law and Global Public Health through Harvard Law School and the World Intellectual Property Organization.