LTC Baugh is an Army Foreign Area Officer (FAO) serving as the 2024-2025 U.S. Army War College Strategic Russian and East European Fellow at Indiana University Hamilton Lugar School. Stephanie graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point, New York) in 2004, receiving a B.S. in Psychology and Commission as an U.S. Army Officer. She received a M.A. in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, CA) in 2015, after graduating with honors from the Defense Language Institute Russian Basic Course.
During her twenty years of active-duty service, LTC Baugh served as a Transportation Corps officer until her selection as a Europe/Eurasia FAO in 2012. LTC Baugh has been stationed overseas in Germany, Iraq, Lithuania, and South Korea. As a FAO, she has temporarily served at U.S. Embassies in Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, and Ukraine. In 2016, LTC Baugh spent several months embedded with the Ukrainian Armed Forces at an international training base in Ukraine. As a FAO, LTC Baugh has trained to serve as an Army attaché in Moscow; served in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia) at the Pentagon; and managed the careers of 400+ FAOs while serving at the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
During her most recent FAO assignment, LTC Baugh served as the Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché (SDO/DATT) to Lithuania at the US Embassy in Vilnius from July 2021 - June 2024. As the SDO/DATT, LTC Baugh represented the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Commander of U.S. European Command to the Republic of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Armed Forces. She was the senior military advisor for two U.S. Ambassadors and led the embassy's Defense Attaché Office; Office of Defense Cooperation; Special Operations Forces Liaison Element; and Baltics Force Protection Detachment. She coordinated operations and support for more than 4,000 rotational U.S. joint military forces deployed in Lithuania.
LTC Baugh's U.S. military awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Achievement Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Korean Defense Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal with two Bronze Service Stars, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, four Overseas Service Ribbons, the Combat Action Badge, Parachutist Badge, Army Basic Recruiter Badge, and Office of the Secretary of Defense Badge. She has foreign state medals from the Lithuanian Minister of Defense, Lithuanian Chief of Defense, and Georgian Minister of Defense