Based in Washington, Jen managed Aviation Week’s worldwide defense, space and security coverage from 2013 to January 2024.
Prior to taking on the Executive Editor role, Jen was Aviation Week's Congressional Editor. Jen came to Aviation Week in March 2011 from Politico, where she covered the intersection of defense and politics. She also worked as a reporter and editor for Defense Daily, Inside the Army, The Other Paper and The Columbus Dispatch.
Jen received a Master’s degree in journalism as a Kiplinger Fellow at the Ohio State University. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in history and journalism from the University of Michigan.
In Washington nobody likes to talk about the “s-word” but as March 1, the deadline for the across-the-board budget cuts grows closer, conversations about sequestration are becoming all-consuming. “It is just occupying everyone's time,” says Pentagon industrial base chief Brett Lambert. Unless lawmakers pass a new agreement by the end of the month, $85 billion in across-the-board budget reductions will take place for fiscal 2013. It is the first increment in a 10-year, nearly $1 trillion package of spending cuts.
OBAMA ON TOUR: Many Republicans spent last summer touring the nation’s military towns talking about the prospect of sequestration. Now President Barack Obama is on the sequestration circuit, planning to stop at Newport News Shipbuilding on Feb. 26. The Virginia congressional delegation’s response: It’s about time. “While the president speaks in Newport News at the shipyard, five American aircraft carriers sit idle, capturing the stark reality of the readiness crisis that hasn’t waited until March 1 – it has already begun,” says Rep.
Fifteen Republican senators are asking President Barack Obama to withdraw the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) to be secretary of defense. The senators, led by John Cornyn (Texas), are rejecting Hagel based on his support for the legitimacy of the current regime in Iran, his thoughts on Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and his performance during his confirmation hearing.
