Originally from New York State, Pasi received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University in 1984, and two years later, she earned a Master of Arts in French studies from New York University.

 

Before joining the Foreign Service in 1988, Pasi worked as an institutional financial market researcher in New York.

 

Her previous overseas assignments have included: political and economic officer at the U.S. Consulate in Douala, Cameroon; human rights and consular officer in Bucharest, Romania; political chief in Accra, Ghana; and political military officer at the embassy in New Delhi, India.

 

Her duties in Washington, DC, at the State Department have been desk officer Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, and for Afghanistan, as well as line officer in the Executive Secretariat. She began work at the Afghanistan Desk on July 30, 2001, while the Taliban were still in power. The next day, two American women were arrested and threatened with execution for proselytizing Christianity. Less than two and a half months later, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.

 

Pasi served as deputy principal officer and acting consul general at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt, Germany. From 2006 to 2009, she was the deputy chief of mission and chargé d’ affaires at the embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

At the time of her nomination to become ambassador to Djibouti, Pasi was director of East African affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs.  

 

Her foreign languages include French, Hindi, Romanian and German.