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Craig Lebamoff has been awarded the NATO Medal and the SW Asia Defense Medal for his service with the NATO mission to Afghanistan. He was embedded with U.S. troops and directed the creation of a 9-1-1 emergency response system for Afghanistan and the creation of a legal affairs division at the Afghan Interior Ministry.

In the photo, Lebamoff is with some of his colleagues in Afghanistan.

The 1989 IU McKinney graduate retired from federal service last year and now lives in New Zealand with his family. Lebamoff was stationed there before he was a Fulbright Fellow in 2012. There he counsels Americans who wish to obtain a second passport by investing in New Zealand. He also consults on border security and cooperation in transnational crime issues. He continues to help the Afghans fine tune their 9-1-1 system and improve their ability to cooperate regionally and internationally on transnational crimes issues. He also has been working with the countries of Madagascar, Mozambique, Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe on "fusion centers" to fight smuggling in animal parts and live animals, or anti-poaching.

Lebamoff previously served as special counsel to International Security Assistance Force Commander General John Allen, USMC. He also served as special counsel/advisor to NATO Training Mission Afghanistan Commander LTG Kenneth Tovo, USA, and Afghan Interior Minister Mujtaba Patang. in Afghanistan. Lebamoff also was awarded a Sir Ian Axford (Fulbright) Fellowship in Public Policy for 2012. Lebamoff has lived in Wellington, the New Zealand capital, and worked as an embedded attorney with the country’s security, intelligence, and police agencies. He also lectured in several New Zealand institutions and wrote a thesis on their immigration and border security challenges since September 11, 2001.

Lebamoff’s previous assignment was in Baghdad, Iraq in 2011. He served at the U.S. Embassy and helped Iraqis who formerly served as translators for the U.S. military during the insurgency apply for and resettle into the U.S. as refugees. Lebamoff received the Department of Homeland Security's Director's Heritage Award for 2011 for his work in assisting Iraqi refugees in the Middle East.