Christine Helmes was born in 1978, the only child of Richard and Dorothy.  She is a native of Canarsie, in Brooklyn, New York.  She attended John Dewey High School in Bensonhurst (’96), and began college as a Theatre major at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus that fall.  Following her freshman year, she worked as a real estate agent and an office manager at several real estate agencies in Brooklyn. 

She transferred to Syracuse University, where she was a member of Pi Beta Phi fraternity, spent a semester as a coxswain on the Womens’ Novice Crew Team, and interned at Syracuse City Court.  Following a leave of absence from SU to intern for the U.S. State Department at the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium, Chris spent a semester at SU’s campus in Washington, D.C. for the Maxwell in Washington Program. There, she interned at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of European/Politico-Military Affairs, as the OSCE Junior Desk Officer.  During that internship, she began her side work as an election observer for the OSCE/ODIHR (http://www.osce.org/odihr/) in Southeastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Caucasus.  Among her most memorable moments as an election observer is her presence near Independence Square in Kiev to witness Ukraine’s famous “Orange Revolution” in November 2004.  She graduated from SU with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, with concentrations on Russia and War and Conflict Resolution, in May 2001. 

After graduation, she attended Boot Camp for the U.S. Marine Corps in Parris Island, S.C.  Having received several injuries during training in July, she was medically separated from the Corps in December 2001, and has always retained a fierce love of, and respect for, the United States Marine Corps (she's even still considering attending Officer Candidates' School on an aviation contract, if they'll accept someone that old!).  In 2002, she returned to Washington, D.C., where she worked on Capitol Hill for a Congressman from New York, and then contracted as a NATO and International Programs Analyst at Defense Information Systems Agency in Falls Church, VA.  She attended the National Defense University, and received her Graduate Certificate in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College’s Command and Staff College in 2004. 

Following her long-term observation of Parliamentary elections in Albania in 2005, Chris moved to Pensacola, FL, where she worked at Seville Quarter as a dancing cocktail waitress (really!) while searching for a "real" job.  In the spring of 2006, Chris moved to Montenegro for several months, where she observed their Referendum on State Status, which ultimately led to the independence of the new nation of Montenegro from Serbia; Chris had the unique privilege of attending the Montenegrin Parliament’s signing of their Declaration of Independence on June 3, 2006.  Upon her return, she assumed the position of Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer at a small communications firm located in Mobile, Alabama. 

In June 2007, Chris received her Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.  She plans to return to graduate school within the next year, with the aim of earning an MBA, as well as a Master of Arts in International Relations, and a Master of Public Administration.

She's a voracious reader, loves shoes and writing, is a total City Mouse, and considers herself quite the pizza and bagel connoisseur.

She loves him more.