Jennifer Harris

Jennifer Waisath 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 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 healthcare, 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 also served in executive positions with two Texas Secretaries of State.

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.

A longtime advisor and staffer to US Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, Ms. Harris oversaw communications and media for Garza in state government and served as his political director and writer, handling grassroots, fundraising and media-related assignments during Garza’s historic 1998 election to statewide office.

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.