Patricia Holahan

Since August 2019, Dr. Holahan has served as the Director of the Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs in the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.  She leads the management of the NRC's program for the regulation of Decommissioning, Low-Level Waste (LLW), and Uranium Recovery functional areas in close coordination with other Federal agencies, States, and Native American Tribal Governments, licensees, and the public.  Prior to that she was the Director of Rulemaking where she led the NRC’s core function of rulemaking for the reactor and materials programs.  She has been with NRC since 1991 and has held a variety of staff and management positions in NMSS, the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, and the Office of Enforcement and also served as a Technical Assistant to former Chairman Meserve.  

Before joining NRC, Dr. Holahan worked as a Consultant Radiation Biologist and an Assistant Professor for the University of Texas’ Health Science Center, in San Antonio.  She received her Ph.D. in Radiation Biology from Colorado State University.  She earned a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and Master’s Degree in Biophysics from the University of Western Ontario.