Rachel Bauman

Rachel Bauman serves as the senior policy advisor for Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. 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.