International Relations Officer

Lt. Col. Barbara Fick ’89 calls herself an “officer of international relations.”

An Army foreign area officer with the U.S. Military Group at the American embassy in Bogotá, she is liaison to the nation’s Ministry of Defense and to its equivalent to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It’s not a post she was angling for prior to 9/11, when, as a reservist, she was teaching Spanish and Latin American studies at American University.

“I was at the point of resigning my reserve commission so I could focus 100 percent on my academic career,” says Fick, who holds a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and a master’s and doctorate from the University of Tennessee. “I never would have seen myself back in the military full-time and loving it.”

But after the Sept. 11 attacks, she was mobilized to Miami as a political military officer with the Andean Ridge portfolio, which includes Peru and Colombia. Now, after a fulfilling assignment as special assistant to the commander of the U.S. Southern Command—encompassing Central and South America, the Caribbean, Cuba, and the Panama Canal area— she’s in Bogotá.

She assists with U.S. security operation in Colombia, prepares Colombian officers for U.S. military professional-development schools, and helps Colombia develop its military and incorporate human-rights training into its curricula, among other responsibilities.

“My job is to help understanding among partner nations,” she says. “I feel I’m contributing to something good, and I will continue as long as I can make a difference.”