Rachel Bauman serves as the policy advisor for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. Since joining the Commission staff in 2018, Rachel has organized numerous hearings and briefings on topics ranging from political repression in Belarus to protecting Ukraine’s cultural heritage during Russia’s full-scale invasion. She served as an election observer in Odesa for the first round of the Ukrainian presidential elections in 2019, as well as in Vitebsk, Belarus, for the 2019 parliamentary elections. Rachel has traveled widely throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union, including staffing many congressional delegations, and she organizes Commissioners’ participation in the third committee (Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions) during the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s annual meetings.

Rachel holds a M.A. in Statecraft and International Affairs from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC, where she graduated summa cum laude. A Pennsylvania native, Rachel also holds a B.A. in English from Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. She spent the summer of 2015 teaching English at a children’s summer camp in Russia and returned in the summer of 2017 for intensive language study in the historic city of Vladimir. She is proficient in Russian.

Patrick Hanish is a member of the Senior Foreign Service with more than 25 years of experience, currently serving as State Department Senior Advisor to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Patrick most recently served as Director of the Office of Iranian Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, and as Chief of Staff to the Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues.

Patrick’s most recent overseas assignment was as Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at U.S. Embassy – Cairo.  He also served in overseas leadership positions as Counselor for Political-Military Affairs at U.S. Embassy – Baghdad, Chief of the Political-Economic Affairs Section at U.S. Consulate General – Istanbul, and Political Chief and Deputy Principal Officer at Consulate General – Erbil.

His other previous tours include: Executive Director/Assistant Chief of Protocol, Office of the Chief of Protocol of the United States; Senior Assignments Officer for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Political Officer at U.S. Embassy – Sarajevo; Special Assistant to the Secretary’s Special Envoy for Kosovo Final Status Talks; Desk Officer for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; Watch Officer in the Department of State’s Operations Center; Political Officer at Consulate General – Istanbul; and Economic/Consular Officer at Embassy – Riyadh. He has served extend temporary-duty assignments to Sana’a, Yemen and Adana, Turkey. Prior to joining the State Department, he worked for the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) in Moscow, Russia.

Patrick holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the National War College; a master’s degree in national security studies from Georgetown University, and a bachelor’s degree in international politics from Georgetown University. Patrick speaks Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish and Kurdish.

Janice Helwig is a senior policy advisor focusing on the countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan, as well as trafficking in persons. She joined the Commission in 1994, and has extensive expertise on the procedures, functioning, and history of the OSCE. In addition to participating in many OSCE events, conferences, and election observations, she has worked on numerous OSCE Ministerial and Summit documents, including those focused on promoting human rights, combating trafficking in persons, combating sexual exploitation of children, minority issues, gender equality and elections.

Prior to joining the U.S. government, she was an associate curator at the J.B. Speed art museum in Louisville, KY, where she worked on one of the first exhibitions organized directly between U.S. and Soviet museums on Russian Constructivist Theater Design as well as a permanent exhibition of Roman funerary art.

Janice holds a B.A. in History and Classics and an M.A. in Art History from the University of Louisville, where she was an N.B. Nettleroth Merit Scholar, a Hite scholar and a National Merit Scholar. She has knowledge of German, French, Spanish, Albanian, ancient Greek, and Latin.

Jean-Francois Hernandez is the Staff Associate at the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), where he assists the office director with administrative duties.

Prior to joining the Helsinki Commission, Jean-Francois was a trainee in the Global Issues and Innovation Section of the Delegation of the European Union to the United States in Washington, D.C. He graduated from the American University with a degree in international relations and a minor in economics, specializing in American foreign policy with a regional focus on Europe. He previously interned on Capitol Hill and for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

Jean-Francois is originally from Easton, Connecticut and has lived abroad in Mexico and Brazil.

Paul Massaro is the Senior House Staff Representative at the Helsinki Commission. He has been described in the media as “one of America’s foremost corruption experts” and an “endless source of democratic ingenuity.” He previously held the role of Senior Policy Advisor for Counter-Corruption and Sanctions at the Helsinki Commission. His work has advanced the recognition of corruption as a national security threat and furthered the cause of Ukrainian victory.

Massaro has been instrumental in the passage of numerous pieces of groundbreaking legislation to counter and contain dictatorships including:

• The Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act, which enabled the confiscation of Russian sovereign assets and their use for the benefit of Ukraine.
• The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, which criminalized the demand side of foreign bribery and has been described as “without question…the most consequential anti-foreign-bribery law passed in almost 50 years.”
• The Oligarch Assets for Ukrainian Victory Act, which enabled illicit assets recovered from Russian oligarchs to be sent to Ukraine as aid.
• The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, which redefined doping as fraud and made it illegal in international competitions anywhere in the world.
• The Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act, which served as the first-ever U.S. law to respond to the abuse of INTERPOL by authoritarian regimes.

Massaro holds a PhD in Policy Studies, Master of Public Policy, and two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Government & Politics and Germanic Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. He speaks fluent German.

Jennifer P. McCuiston is the Director of Operations at the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

Ms. McCuiston is a veteran of Capitol Hill. For more than a decade, she was Administrative Officer at the U. S. Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, where she managed the administrative and operational functions of the office, including negotiating inter-agency and other cooperative agreements. She previously served as Counselor for the office, providing services for 30,000 legislative-branch employees. Her work included ensuring compliance with the Congressional Accountability Act established to protect the workplace rights of the legislative community – covering both employees and employing offices.

Before coming to Capitol Hill, Ms. McCuiston served as a policy manager for the AARP consumer portfolio, traveling across the United States to research issues from livable communities to banking products that helped to formulate AARP policy. She also worked as a liaison for AARP Services, Inc. and AARP (non-profit), and led various leadership teams and projects in support of AARP.

She also previously served at the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board supporting the Vice Chairman and doing legal research focused on Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) cases. Additionally, she spent time working at the American Nurses Association in the Government Affairs division.

Ms. McCuiston completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and holds a Master’s degree from Eastern Michigan University in criminology/criminal justice.

Bakhti Nishanov joined the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe as a senior policy advisor in 2021. He serves as a Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, and the OSCE’s Mediterranean Partners specialist. Prior to joining the Helsinki Commission, Bakhti served as Deputy Director for Eurasia at the International Republican Institute, where he helped oversee a portfolio of democracy and governance programs. Prior to that, he covered Central Asia at Freedom House’s headquarters and its offices in Uzbekistan, and held numerous consultative positions with the World Bank, USAID, and other organizations. He is fluent in Russian, Uzbek and Turkish.

Alanna Novetsky is the Communications Associate at the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), where she manages external communications, press engagements, and social media for the Commission. Prior to joining the Helsinki Commission, Alanna served as a project assistant at the National Democratic Institute. She was also a Max Kampelman communications fellow at the Helsinki Commission.

Alanna is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, where she received a BA in history and international studies, and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she received a Master of Arts in International Relations with focus areas in Asia and Security, Strategy, and Statecraft.

Kyle Parker was jointly appointed on January 3, 2018 by U.S. Senators Roger Wicker and Ben Cardin, then-Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively.

Prior to his appointment to the Commission, Kyle served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee as Ranking Member Eliot Engel’s senior advisor overseeing U.S. foreign policy toward the 50 countries and three international organizations covered by the Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. From 2006 to 2014, Kyle served as Policy Advisor for Eurasia at the U.S. Helsinki Commission under the Chairmanships of Sam Brownback, Alcee Hastings, Ben Cardin, and Chris Smith. Before entering government, Kyle spent eight years at the American Foreign Policy Council managing high-level political exchanges with Russia, Ukraine, and China.

Kyle’s work on the Magnitsky Act, a landmark law redefining human rights advocacy around the world, is featured in two New York Times bestsellers, and his expertise on Russia has been quoted by outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Politico, CNN, Fox News, NPR, GQ, and foreign media outlets. Kyle is a graduate of the University of Maine and the U.S. Naval War College. He speaks fluent Russian.

Everett serves as senior policy advisor for the Western Balkans and Digital Technology Policy as well as Secretary of the U.S. Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Everett rejoined the U.S. Helsinki Commission in 2022 and previously served on the Commission staff from 2016-2020. Prior to returning to the Commission, he served two years as a strategy consultant for commercial and government clients, specializing in the intersection of emerging technologies and national security. Previously at the Commission, Everett worked on the Transnational Repression Accountability and Prevention (TRAP) Act (P.L. 117-81, Sec. 6503), landmark legislation addressing authoritarian abuse of INTERPOL and other methods of intimidation and harassment directed at free voices overseas.

Everett has more than a decade and a half of experience in national security, foreign policy, and Congressional oversight spanning the executive and legislative branches and the private sector. He earned his Bachelor’s of Science in Foreign Service in Regional Studies of the Islamic World from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is proficient in Arabic, French, and Spanish.

Shannon Simrell was appointed to the staff of the U.S. Helsinki Commission on September 2, 2019. She served as the commission’s representative to the United States Mission to the OSCE (USOSCE) until August 2023 where she ensured close cooperation between the commission and the mission, lead USOSCE’s engagement with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, on civil society engagement, and on youth. Currently, she leads the commission’s work to address and counter antisemitism and covers Western Europe and the work of OSCE’s economic and environmental dimension.

Between 2008 and 2018, Shannon recruited, deployed, and provided ongoing support to more than 2,300 Americans seconded to nearly 100 OSCE permanent, special, and election observation missions on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. She has conducted dozens of site visits to OSCE field missions and has been deployed as an OSCE election observer in Kosovo, Georgia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.

As a U.S. secondee to the OSCE Mission to Kosovo between 2006 and 2008, Shannon oversaw democratization programs and eventually served as the acting deputy director of the Regional Center in Gjilan/Gnjilane and its 110 staff. She began her engagement with the region in the 1990s when she developed democratization and environmental programs for civil society leaders from Russia and Central and Eastern Europe.

Shannon holds a dual B.A. in philosophy and French language from the University of Scranton and studied for one year in France. She also earned a M.A. in international education from the School for International Training in Vermont.

Jordan Warlick is a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Jordan Warlick joined the Helsinki Commission staff in 2016 and serves as the policy advisor for the countries of the Visegrád Four (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) and the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). She also manages the Max Kampelman Fellowship Program for the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

Jordan has considerable experience advising and staffing Members of Congress; representing the U.S. Government in international settings; acting as a liaison with the State Department, international organizations, and advocacy groups; organizing major, international Congressional delegation visits; planning Congressional hearings and events; and writing statements, memos, talking points, and policy articles for publications like The Hill.

Previously, Jordan served as Office Director for the Helsinki Commission, where she managed overall operations and budget for the Commission; coordinated major hearings, briefings, and events; led international travel coordination; and managed junior staff, fellows, and interns.

Jordan graduated with a Master of Arts in Defense and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College in June 2022. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations, specializing in Russia and Eastern Europe regional studies. She has lived in a number of countries across the OSCE region including Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Germany. She is proficient in French.