Based in Washington, Jen manages Aviation Week’s worldwide defense, space and security coverage.
Prior to taking on her current 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.
Rep. Jerry Costello (Ill.), the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure aviation subcommittee, will not run for re-election next fall. “It has been a privilege and an honor to serve in the U.S. Congress for the past 23 years,” Costello says in a statement. “However, I said when I was elected in 1988 and many times since that I did not intend to stay in Congress forever as I had other interests that I wanted to pursue.”
The Transportation Security Agency, long derided by travelers for glacially slow wait times at airports and by public officials for its bureaucratic inefficiency, is finally winning a bit of praise for the rollout of a pilot program aimed at speeding airport security checks. TSA PreCheck, as it is branded, is a limited voluntary pre-screening program that allows airlines to sign up certain frequent flyers at four U.S. airports—Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit and Miami. It also includes members of Customs and Border Protection’s Trusted Traveler programs.
OFF AND RUNNING: A former U.S. Marine and analyst with a K-Street think tank is heading outside the Beltway, hoping the citizens of Oklahoma will send him back to Washington as a Republican member of Congress in 2013. Sept. 30 was retired Lt. Col. Dakota Wood’s last day as a land and irregular warfare expert for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He formally kicks off his campaign Oct. 6. During his time in the Marine Corps, Wood conducted defense, policy and political analysis.
