Patricia Auten

Patti Auten serves as a Contract Specialist within the DSC Contracting Services Division of the National Park Service, where she manages the acquisition of critical infrastructure services essential to preserving and modernizing America’s national parks. Her responsibilities include planning, soliciting, evaluating, and awarding contracts for construction, utility upgrades, and facility rehabilitation projects across ecologically sensitive and remote sites. She ensures compliance with federal acquisition regulations while aligning procurements with the agency’s mission to maintain historic structures and enhance visitor infrastructure. Auten specializes in complex, multi-year construction and engineering services acquisitions requiring technical oversight and environmental stewardship. She maintains established working relationships with key contractors including HDR Engineering Inc., Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, Inc., McKenzie Construction & Site Development LLC, BookCliff Partners, LLC, and Aleut Construction LLC. These partnerships reflect a preference for firms with demonstrated expertise in federal infrastructure projects, particularly those experienced in working within protected lands and historic preservation contexts. Auten fosters collaborative, performance-based contracting relationships that emphasize quality, safety, and adherence to National Park Service standards. Auten demonstrates a strong commitment to socioeconomic contracting, with over 61% of her awards structured as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. She consistently prioritizes small business participation, regularly awarding contracts to small disadvantaged, HUBZone, and veteran-owned firms. This pattern underscores her dedication to fostering equitable economic opportunity while ensuring a robust, diverse contractor base capable of meeting the NPS’s unique operational demands. Her procurement focus centers on NAICS codes including 236220 (Commercial and Institutional Building Construction), 237310 (Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction), and 221310 (Water Supply and Irrigation Systems). She specializes in acquiring services related to structural rehabilitation, utility system modernization, and site development for park facilities, demonstrating deep technical familiarity with federal construction standards, environmental compliance, and historic preservation protocols.