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.
The Air Force suffered a back-to-back pummeling by two House committees over its proposal for deep cuts to the Air National Guard (ANG). Now the Senate is piling on. Senators are dismissing the Air Force's plan to scale back Guard forces to help meet federally mandated budget reductions, complaining that it was hastily made without adequate supporting analysis.
The big question in Washington is whether a squabbling Congress will act to avert an automatic government-wide budget reduction of $1.2 trillion, half of which would come from defense spending. But it may not matter. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is warning the Pentagon to prepare itself for major reductions to defense spending—up to $1.5 trillion over 12 years—regardless of what happens on Capitol Hill.
Contestants for the Google Lunar X Prize will have to be careful around Apollo hardware and other human artifacts on the Moon as they vie for prize money promised for returning images of historic spacecraft with their landers. The X Prize Foundation, which organized the $30 million prize, has agreed to include NASA guidelines for preserving historic sites on the Moon as it evaluates proposals from the privately funded teams in the competition. Teams are looking for ways to add to the winnings, and selling up-close imagery is one possibility.
