Alexandra Nicole Baker ('' née'' Rogers), known as Sasha Baker, is an American policy advisor who currently serves as Deputy

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy The United States under secretary of defense for policy (USDP) is a high level civilian official in the United States Department of Defense. The under secretary of defense for policy is the principal staff assistant and adviser to both the secr ...

at the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

. Most recently, Baker served as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council. During the

Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

administration Baker previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. Defense Secretary

Ashton Carter Ashton Baldwin Carter (September 24, 1954 – October 24, 2022) was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States Secretary of Defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Be ...

Early life and education

Baker was born Alexandra Nicole Rogers in 1983. She grew up outside New York City in its suburbs in northern

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Her maternal grandparents were from Russia, and her mother, Svetlana Lisanti, came to the U.S. as a refugee. Baker received her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(B.A.) degree from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

in 2005 and a

Master of Public Policy The Master of Public Policy (MPP), is one of several public policy degrees. An MPP is a master's-level professional degree that provides training in policy analysis and program evaluation at public policy schools. The MPP program places a focu ...

(M.P.P.) degree from the

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

in 2011. After receiving her M.P.P., Baker became a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs The Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, also known as the Belfer Center, is a research center located within the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, in the United States. From 2017 until his death in Oc ...

Career

After college Baker worked for a consulting firm in Boston, which was not a good fit. Beginning in 2007 Baker worked as a research assistant in the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the

House Armed Services Committee The U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, commonly known as the House Armed Services Committee or HASC, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is responsible for funding and oversight of the Department of De ...

for two years. After gaining her masters, she worked at the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

(OMB), until July 2015. She started as a Program Examiner in the Homeland Security division then transferred to the National Security division. Baker was later elevated to the position of Special Assistant to the Director within in the OMB. During that time she had detached duty in the Pentagon doing budget analysis. Baker was awarded the

Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service The Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service is the highest award that is presented by the Secretary of Defense, to a private citizen, politician, non-career federal employee, or foreign national. It is presented for exceptiona ...

in 2015. Baker served as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of Defense

Ash Carter Ashton Baldwin Carter (September 24, 1954 – October 24, 2022) was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States Secretary of Defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Be ...

. According to Carter, Baker was intimately involved in

strategy decision related to

counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionari ...

against the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

(ISIS). In 2017, Baker joined the office of Senator

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...

as a policy advisor on national security issues. Baker later joined Warren's 2020 presidential campaign as the candidate's chief national security advisor.

Biden Administration

In January 2021, then-

President-elect An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Unit ...

Joe Biden announced that Baker would be appointed Senior Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council. Biden would later nominate Baker to serve as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in August 2021. On February 9, 2022 Baker was confirmed by the Senate.

Personal life

In 2015, Baker married Sam Baker, a journalist at the '' National Journal.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Sasha 1983 births Living people People from New Jersey Dartmouth College alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni American women political scientists American political scientists United States Department of Defense officials United States National Security Council staffers Biden administration personnel American people of Russian descent