Michael Patoka, J.D., joined the Center for Progressive Reform as a Policy Analyst in October 2012. He previously interned with CPR during law school, co-authoring an extensive report on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and its politicization of the regulatory process, as well as an article based on the report that was published in The Environmental Forum. As a summer research assistant to CPR President Rena Steinzor, he co-authored a set of comments detailing how OIRA undermined the EPA’s proposal to regulate toxic coal ash and critiquing the cost-benefit analysis that emerged from OIRA’s review.

Mr. Patoka graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) with a B.S. in Computer Science. He received his law degree from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded the William Strobel Thomas Prize for achieving the highest scholastic average of the Class of 2012. As a student attorney in the law school’s Drug Policy Clinic, he successfully persuaded several large employers to bring their benefits into compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and developed tools to help health care providers identify and pursue parity violations.