Susan Pascocello

Susan Pascocello is Chemonics’ General Counsel. An international development executive and lawyer, Susan brings more than 30 years of progressive private and public sector legal experience, including 25 years working in different aspects of international development. She served as USAID’s General Counsel (Acting) for four years during her time as Deputy General Counsel and provided integral legal counsel across five USAID administrators and acting administrators and two presidential administrations. Susan oversaw all legal matters affecting USAID’s 10,000 global employees and an annual appropriation of more than $27 billion. She led more than 120 attorneys located in Washington, D.C. and nearly 40 missions around the world, provided legal advice that forwarded USAID’s mission and priorities, and enabled USAID to achieve major U.S. Government programmatic goals.

In 2019, Susan launched the Law of International Development Initiative (LIDI) at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown University Law Center. LIDI, a unique public-private partnership, serves as an intellectual and practical hub for innovative solutions to development challenges and works to mentor and train the next generations of development law leaders. She has a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia.