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.

Fleur Cowan is the State Department Senior Advisor to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Previously she served as Deputy Principal Officer at Consulate General Istanbul. Prior to Türkiye she was posted to U.S. Embassy Paris in the Political Section and before that was Country Information Officer and Spokesperson for the U.S. Mission in Islamabad. She joined the Department of State in 2002 and is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.

Earlier assignments include as a Political Officer in London, Deputy Cultural Attaché in Rome, Spokesperson and Press Officer in Kabul, and with the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization in Washington, DC. Other postings include the Holy See and Karachi.

Ms. Cowan has an M.A. in International Relations from St. Andrews University, Scotland, and an M.A. in National Security Studies from Georgetown University. She grew up outside of Seattle and speaks Italian, French, Turkish and Farsi.

Sam Green joined the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe as a senior policy advisor in 2026. He serves as the Commission’s specialist on political-military affairs across the OSCE region and on the Western Balkans. Prior to joining the Helsinki Commission, he served as Germany Desk Officer at the U.S. Department of State, where he was the primary policy advisor on German security policy including coordination with German counterparts on military assistance, sanctions, and strategic communications. Previously, he served on the National Security Council as Policy Advisor for Russia and Central Asia, where he helped manage interagency policy coordination on sanctions, Russian energy, civil society support, and efforts to counter Russia’s defense industrial base. Earlier in his career, he served in the State Department’s Executive Secretariat and on the Central Asia desk, worked at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kosovo. He holds a master’s degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He speaks Albanian and Spanish.

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 Clerk at the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), where he manages major hearings, briefings, and events; coordinates international travel; and 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. Jean-Francois graduated with a Master of Arts in Defense and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College in June 2024. In 2018, he graduated from the American University with a bachelor’s 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. He is proficient in French.

Connor joined the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) as a policy advisor in April 2026. While he contributes to several regional and issue portfolios, his previous work has focused on Russia and Ukraine. Prior to joining the permanent staff, Connor was a Max Kampelman policy fellow with the Helsinki Commission in 2025. He has also spent time at the Brookings Institution’s Center on the U.S. and Europe, the U.S. Russia Foundation, and on the editorial staff of Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization. Most recently, he was the external policies trainee at the European Parliamentary Liaison Office in Washington.

He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Political Science and French and Francophone Studies and went on to complete an additional fifth year of intensive language study as a David L. Boren scholar in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He speaks Russian and French.

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 Chief Administrative Officer 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 director at the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), where she manages external communications, press engagements, and social media. Alanna also produces the Commission’s podcast, the Transatlantic, and covers media freedom, digital authoritarianism, OSCE Asian Partners for Cooperation, and China’s influence in Europe. Prior to joining the Helsinki Commission, Alanna was as a project assistant at the National Democratic Institute. She previously served as a Max Kampelman communications fellow at the Helsinki Commission.

Alanna graduated from Johns Hopkins SAIS with a Master of Arts in International Relations with focus areas in Asia and Security, Strategy, and Statecraft. She also graduated from Johns Hopkins University with Bachelor of Arts in international studies and history.

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 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.

Nate Sibley is a senior policy advisor at the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He serves as a specialist on illicit finance and economic statecraft. Before joining the Commission he was a Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC, where he led research programs on transnational crime and kleptocracy. His work is credited with helping to elevate foreign corruption as a U.S. national security concern and advance critical anti-money laundering reforms. Nate has also worked in the UK Parliament and lived in the Middle East. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2012 and has an M.A. in International Relations from the University of St Andrews.

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 Deputy Staff Director at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, where she plays a central role in shaping the Commission’s policy agenda, leading staff management and coordination across the Commission, and advising senior leadership on U.S. strategy toward Europe and Eurasia.

Since joining the Commission in 2016, she has held multiple leadership roles, including Senior Policy Advisor and Office Director. She has led major legislative and policy initiatives, organized high-level congressional hearings and international delegations, and participated in senior-level engagements with foreign governments, international organizations, and civil society. She has served under the Chairmanships of Sen. Roger Wicker, Rep. Joe Wilson, Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. Alcee Hastings, and Rep. Chris Smith.

Jordan is a 2026 Aspen Strategy Group Rising Leader and has held professional fellowships with the Wilson Center and the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. She also has previous experience with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the McCain Institute, and the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy.

She holds a Master of Arts in Defense and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Southern California. She has lived across the OSCE region, including in Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Germany, and has advanced proficiency in French.