Jen Howard is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Stigler Center for spring/summer 2025. Before joining the Stigler Center, Howard served as the Department of Transportation's first-ever Chief Competition Officer, where she advanced Secretary Pete Buttigieg's competition and passenger rights initiatives. This included policies to require automatic refunds, ban hidden junk fees, and protect airline rewards; landmark enforcement actions against Southwest and other airlines; and enhanced airline merger oversight. Prior to DOT, Howard served as chief of staff of the Federal Trade Commission under FTC Chair Lina Khan and before that, chief of staff to then-FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra. In these roles, she worked to broaden the agency’s public engagement and maximize its authority to protect against illegal mergers, ban noncompete clauses, and stop unfair practices such as subscription traps and schoolwork surveillance. Earlier, Howard established and led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Communications and served on the CFPB-implementation team at the Department of Treasury. Her government service began at the Federal Communications Commission as spokesperson for the FCC Chairman. Howard holds a B.A. from Loyola University Chicago and an M.A. from Georgetown University.
