Jennifer Harris

SENIOR ADVISOR

Jennifer Harris brings more than two decades of extensive strategic communications, grassroots and coalition management and media relations experience to her clients at JWH Communications.  She also serves as a consulting partner with ROSS Communications and as a senior advisor to The Eller Group on select client projects.

Prior to forming JWH Communications in 2010, Ms. Harris was a director with ROSS Communications, managing client accounts across several industry sectors including health care, technology, education, telecom, and transportation.

Ms. Harris previously served as the spokesperson for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, coordinating response and messaging for complex issues including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, outsourcing, and state contracting.  She was an integral part of the agency’s effort to promote and defend a nearly $1 billion contract to modernize the state’s benefits system. She also oversaw communications for two secretaries of state and a Texas Railroad Commissioner. 

As a director at Public Strategies, Ms. Harris directed marketing and client activities for the firm’s International Group, offering her in-depth insight on communications and media relations to international and domestic clients, including a leading international brewery and a Fortune 500 financial services company. 

Ms. Harris holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in government and a master’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin. She is a past fellow with the Next Generation Project Texas at the Robert S. Strauss Institute for International Law and Security and served on The University of Texas at Austin’s 1883 Council and Forty Acres Society. Ms. Harris lives in Austin with her husband and son.