Sasha Baker is a senior advisor at OpenAI, where she focuses on building public-private partnerships to advance preparedness for developments in artificial intelligence. Previously, Sasha served as the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, after being confirmed by the Senate as the Deputy Under Secretary in February 2022. In this role, she served as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for defense policy and led the Pentagon's efforts to build partnerships and enhance defense cooperation globally.
Sasha has held key roles across administrations over her nearly two decades of government service. She served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning at the National Security Council, leading a team in drafting the 2022 National Security Strategy. She was the national security advisor for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Deputy Policy Director on her 2020 presidential campaign. Prior to that, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, leading his efforts to accelerate innovation and build a more robust defense technology ecosystem.
Sasha joined the civil service as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Office of Management and Budget, where she served in the Homeland Security and National Security divisions and later as Special Assistant to the OMB Director. She began her public service career with the House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, supporting bipartisan congressional reviews on a variety of national security topics.
Sasha holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Dartmouth College and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal with oak leaf cluster. She resides in Washington, DC, with her husband and son.