Strategic Communications in the Biden White House: A Conversation with Jennifer Molina

Senior Podcast Editor Sneha Choudhary (MPP ‘24) sits down with Jennifer Molina, Special Assistant to the President of the United States and Deputy Director of Communications at The White House, to discuss her experiences as a Day One appointee of the Biden Administration, authentically engaging the Joe Biden coalition through media engagement, and the critical importance of self care. 

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:

SNEHA CHOUDHARY: Hey and welcome to the Georgetown Public Policy Review Podcast. I’m your host, Sneha Choudhary and today, I am so excited to unveil the first part of a two part conversation with two of the White House Deputy Communications Directors. 

Live from the West Wing, I sat down with Jennifer Molina and Herbie Ziskend, to discuss strategic communications, trends in media, as well as their personal career progressions. 

In today’s episode, I speak with Jen. Jen is Special Assistant to the President of the United States of America and Deputy Communications Director at The White House. She has over a decade of experience in strategic communications, with a specialization in coalitions and constituencies media, which we’ll discuss later on in today’s episode.

She was also my supervisor during my internship earlier this year, as well as a role model and friend to me. I have been able to learn so much from working with Jen.

And I am really excited for you all to get the opportunity to do the same. I think you will really enjoy this conversation, so let’s go ahead and get started. 

CHOUDHARY: Hi Jen, I’m so excited to have you on the podcast today. 

JENNIFER MOLINA: Hi, thank you for having me. 

CHOUDHARY: How are you today? 

MOLINA: I’m great, I’m great. 

CHOUDHARY: Is it a busy day or more relaxed? 

MOLINA: It’s been a busy, busy day, busy week. It feels Tuesday, it feels like. It should be Friday, but we’re hanging in there. 

CHOUDHARY: Well, we’re almost there. Well, actually not really, but we’ll make it. So, there’s so many things I want to talk about with you today, but let’s just start from the beginning. Can you talk a little bit, just high level about the progression of your career? Specifically, what is your North star and how has that helped you navigate? 

MOLINA: Yeah, I think, you know, for me, I have dedicated my career to Communications.

I love political, policy, advocacy, communications. I grew up knowing nothing about our government or how it functions or the resources available to someone like me and my family or those that look like me and my family or have similar experiences and I grew up in a really,  know, inner city poverty. And it took me leaving that situation and go into school in Michigan to realize that, wow, there is a different world. I always aspired for more, but I didn’t really know what I was expiring for. I just wanted more. I wanted different. And I think for me, you know, it really kind of just sparked that like passion of ensuring that there is a constant Like there is, uh, intention in reaching out tO all the various different communities and I really just kind of st bled upon communications.

I thought I wanted to be a lawyer or I don’t know, something different. I didn’t really know what communications was. And thankfully I had a really great experience interning in DC at the Center for American Progress, and you know, I was very eager in my twenties and jumped at every opportunity that came my way. I actually was a policy intern, but I fell in love with the communications team and I would just constantly pop into their offices and eventually they started handing me more and more responsibilities. And thankfully I had the ability to build a lot of really great relationships with people at CAP and after I graduated, I moved to New York.

I was at a PR firm, Berlin Rosen which I loved. I was doing a lot of advocacy communications around Fight for 15 New York, so it was media training McDonald workers on how to speak to CNN about your experience and why you’re fighting for a fair wage.  I fell in love with media training and working with booking and getting cameras to a specific press conference or a specific, you know, kind of showcasing the why behind a policy, right? So working through getting people into someone’s home that and they’re living in really poor conditions because they don’t have enough funding to be able to provide for their family. And through that, I just loved, you know, having the ability to work with media and kind of the idea of storytelling and I got a call from the Center for American Progress and they were like, hey, would you be interested in coming back to D. C.? And we have this role opening,  are you interested?

And I was like, yes, I always wanted to come back to D. C., and I moved and I started off doing ethnic media, coalitions, constituency media. I’ve dedicated a lot of my career to that, and little by little, I started again, kind of. I really like the C4 kind of electoral work and same thing, I was just hanging out in people’s offices and being very eager for more work.

And I became the Deputy to the Communications Director at the CAP Action side, and this was right before 2016, so I was doing a lot of our state work. I got to travel to Nevada and Colorado and all the key states, to advocate for and do press conferences and different events around childcare and healthcare, do a lot of the work around the Supreme Court fights, LGBT and healthcare rights were on the line, that court cycle and it was just really, really incredible experience and  doing a lot of the state work made me just fall in love with like state advocacy.

And I realized, you know, when I was hosting a lot of like tables, you call them, from people across states, I was one of the only few people that didn’t have state experience.  So I felt like a little bit of a rookie, and that made me want to jump on the 2016 campaign for Hillary Clinton.

And I went to Nevada. Which was a phenomenal experience. I think everyone should do a campaign. I’ve told you that many times. And, you know, I think it was just a really good experience kind of being on the ground and having the ability to connect with voters directly. And working like state reporters is like a different beast, but it was a lot of fun and obviously,  it was not the results that we wanted, but I think I just really gained so much from that cycle. And after that, I thought I was done with politics. I wanted to move back. Well, not move back to DC. I was like, I’m never going back to DC. Please keep me away.

So I moved to LA and I freelanced for a little, and didn’t want to go back into politics. But I couldn’t stay away. I got the opportunity to work for the California Department of Justice. And that was a lot of fun because it was a lot of outlining the California versus Trump narrative. Attorney General Harris at that time was transitioning out and we got Attorney General Becerra, so it was like starting an office from scratch, and I think that gave me a lot of really unique experiences, so I kind of know how to build a team up and really kind of deal with career staff and non career staff, etc

CHOUDHARY: Yeah, so you kind of mentioned in the beginning of your intro that you don’t really come from a political background, and politics as we all know, is filled with nepotism. So how do you navigate the nepotistic – I looked that up, it is a word – how do you navigate the nepotistic system that is politics? What is your advice for building a network and building a community for somebody who’s just starting out and maybe doesn’t have any connections? 

MOLINA: Yeah, I think to your earlier question of having your North Star.

You see so many people who are just kind of just caught up in the power. But this is a service – we are so fortunate to have the ability to do the work that we do and work for someone like Joe Biden, who is incredible and really deeply believes in doing the best that he can do.

And that really inspires all of us, right, to do the best that we can do for the American people. You know, this is a phenomenal country. And I think for me, like, I constantly think about opportunity, like giving someone the opportunity that I have,  and it always makes me choked up because it’s a huge blessing to be able to do this work.

And I think just keeping your North star, it’s a really good reminder. I remember being young and just overwhelmed by, Oh my God, how do you navigate DC? How do you navigate being in these rooms? And it’s so scary. And you just, you really have to have a North star and holding on to that North Star and building community and having like your core people that keep you going.

It’s really important. 

CHOUDHARY: You made me also choke up. I think that’s so beautiful. So like you mentioned, you were a day one appointee of the Biden administration. So you have been here since the jump, probably literally every single day working since then. So what was the process behind building out a communications team from what you’ve told me it was just three of you in the beginning, right?

MOLINA: No, no, we had a larger team. So it was within my…What are you referencing? 

CHOUDHARY: I feel like we had talked about how there were just, I don’t know, like early on in the administration, there were just three of you. 

MOLINA: Maybe it felt, it felt like it was just three of us. So the campaign ended, a few of us kind of stayed behind to deal with all of the state work that was ongoing. 

There was a lot of ballot challenges, and then it was around Thanksgiving, we transitioned into the transition. It was like two days, where I didn’t really know what was going on. And it’s like, hey, you’re jumping on the transition, which was great. And during the transition, we had the ability to kind of build up a lot of our team. You know, we had Kate Bedengfield, who was our communications director. I remember at the time being so excited. It was like December where it was like an all female led communications team.

CHOUDHARY: That’s so badass.  

MOLINA: I loved it, yeah. I was so excited for that and, you know, at that point I still didn’t fully know. Kate kept saying, oh, don’t worry, you’re gonna get taken care of. I’m like, what does that mean? I like to have a plan for everything, like this is freaking me out, but she kept reassuring, don’t worry, don’t worry.

So yeah, we started off and you know, it was just so kind of crazy because at that point we were at the height of the pandemic still and I remember telling my husband like when I got the job. I’m like, okay, Kate told me that I have to be there in two weeks. And at that point we were still living, we had everything in Santa Monica, so we moved back to move, we went back to California, to move all of our things and make a move across the country.

Which was really challenging in the middle of a pandemic. How do you get movers and how do you xyz? But it was, you know, really, really great  to have the ability. We had a really great team on the campaign and a lot of the camp of that original team kind of transition over to be Day One.

And it was really interesting because, you know, we had all these, like going from typing out. All of our campaign promises right in the kind of building out like, I don’t know, messaging around that to actually implementing, I think was my favorite part and a challenging part of being here so early on, right?

We didn’t really know who we were communicating with; agencies were also still getting built out. And it was a lot of work on our team like now thankfully we have so many communicators across all of government which is amazing and you know, sometimes it feels like you’re just like moving a ship forward and early on you’re just like fully building it all out and you don’t really know where to turn and we just have to showcase you know confidence and leadership and You know, it was really exciting to have the ability to like roll a policy rollout and kind of working through a tick tock I remember we had like a check in in the morning, like midday, afternoon, and like 6 p.m. and then like 9 p.m. We were just like constantly in communication. 

CHOUDHARY: Every three hours. 

MOLINA: Honestly, it was just a lot. And we were all just trying to figure it out. You know, and I think I got to build up my team. I started, I was the only one of the coalitions media department. Maybe that’s the reference we’re talking about.

So I was kind of managing everything,  it was like we were rolling our equity agenda and it was like figure out a strategy for black media and rural and women’s and AAPI and Hispanic and it was like, Oh, okay, great. Yes. And then, you know, we have a pretty aggressive booking, uh, strategy here, as you know, so it was, it was a lot of not sleeping much, but it was a really exciting time.

And I was just again, just really fortunate to have the most phenomenal colleagues with me.  , you know, I have like some of my best friends are people that I like didn’t campaign with and started day one because we just really bonded throughout that process. And yeah, it was really, really incredible.

And it’s been really phenomenal, kind of like looking back. How much the team has grown, the capacity that’s been built out, and just how much we’ve been able to accomplish is really, really crazy. 

CHOUDHARY: Yeah, yeah. So you, you talked a little bit about Coalition’s Media. Just for any listeners that might not be familiar, can you explain what Coalition’s Media is?

MOLINA: Yeah. So Coalition’s Media is essentially thinking through like any core constituency. When I originally spoke with Kate Bedenfield about it, it’s like, you know, like the Joe Biden coalition, right? We’re thinking through key constituencies and key community groups that we need to target.

And right, a communication strategy, a good communication strategy is ensuring that you are communicating to everyone that is, has a potential or is benefiting from X, Y, and Z policy.  , so it’s kind of thinking through proactively of how are we engaging. Right. Not only at a state level, but kind of breaking that down of, okay, this is on infrastructure, like let’s build out and work with our policy folks to ensure we’re building out: How is this benefiting women? Are we creating jobs for women?  How is this benefiting the black community, Hispanic community, et cetera? So it’s working with  constituency specific outlets to ensure that we’re getting our message out there and it looks really different in multiple ways, right?

You can’t, again, back to the point of, like, building out a good communication strategy is ensuring that you’re kind of hitting people in all different ways, right? You want someone to wake up and see on, you know, morning news that Joe Biden’s economy is phenomenal and you want them to get in the car to go to work and you turn on the radio and one of our surrogates is on speaking about how great the economy is right now,  , and then they get into the office and they pick up a newspaper and they see that same message, right?

You just have to, people just consume news in so many different ways now that it’s just really important to kind of think through like every way possible to reach someone, right? And I think coalitions, it’s like a step further of, okay, when you think about a specific constituency group or community? Where are they getting their news?

Sometimes it’s like, you know trust it’s worse is that like they don’t watch the typical less than less people watch the MS and CNN’s of the world and they’re on the shade room or you know different outlets, so it’s really important for our team to develop those relationships and connect directly. I hate saying this line of like reaching people where they are, but is really that I think constituency and coalitions media is really just all about, you know, ensuring that we’re reaching people where they’re getting their news.

CHOUDHARY: Yeah. Yeah. So I just interviewed Herbie right before this and we talked about the multi- pronged approach as well. I’m curious to know, from your perspective, because you are an immigrant, how do you meaningfully and authentically engage around coalitions media and reaching different audiences without feeling like you’re just checking a box?

Like, how do you actually make it meaningful to a group? And how have your lived experiences kind of played a role in that? 

MOLINA: Yeah. We have a phenomenal team, one, that does this, and like, they have incredible relationships with key community leaders that advise us on where to go.

But I think so much of it is also listening, right? It’s like listening, like, what are you not hearing from us? Like, how do you want to gather this information, right? If we present you with X, Y, and Z surrogate, and you don’t think that surrogate makes sense for you, okay, we can change that, and we can give you someone that can break this down in a different way or can speak the language. I think so much of ensuring that we’re doing it intentionally is just developing those relationships and listening and ensuring that we can effectively build a two way relationship, right? Because it’s, it’s not just like us feeding, feeding, feeding.

We also receive a lot of feedback and that feedback is so, so important for us to just continue doing the work. 

CHOUDHARY: Yeah, yeah. So transitioning a little bit into your role today, can you walk the listeners through what an average day looks like for Jen Molina? And I know every day is different, so. 

MOLINA: Every day is very different.

Honestly, every day is so different. As I mentioned, in my current role, I now manage all of our media directors. So it’s a group of individuals who are phenomenal and are just dedicated to getting our message out into the country. So it’s waking up, doing a scan of the news – 

CHOUDHARY: What time do you wake up? 

MOLINA: Uh, I generally wake up around five ish. I like to run in the morning. When I don’t run, the days are not good days for me. It’s my outlet, you know. I  also like to  spend time with my dog in the morning as much as I can. 

CHOUDHARY: Sweet MJ. 

MOLINA: MJ is the best, and get to spend time with my husband.

We have this thing where every single day, no matter what, we walk MJ together. And I think that’s important kind of defining, like, little things to do because we don’t get a lot of time together and you have to make time to connect. So that is our time. So I get up, walk MJ eat breakfast.

I’m a big breakfast person. 

CHOUDHARY: You do love your boiled eggs. 

MOLINA: I do love my boiled eggs. I have my coffee, do a scan of news, look at emails, kind of get a gauge of what we generally have going on, the week ahead of,  we know who’s going out when, but, you know, doing a check in with our team and seeing  if everyone has everything that they need, our folks are oftentimes running around quite a bit, so it’s just ensuring that we’re touching base on surrogates, do people have talking points,does everyone have what they need to be ensured that, you know, they can go out for that day.

Then we have a series of meetings in the mornings. I help out on staffing whenever needed, like it’s really all kind of hands on deck because we’re such a small team and throughout the day it’s kind of just like a lot of responding to news of day and ensuring that if something is happening that we’re being responsive to it and that we’re kind of building up proactive like strategies and ensuring that we constantly are trying to shape our own narrative, in a proactive way, and obviously the best way to do that is through our messaging and surrogate program.

So it’s really hard to say an average day because there’s really no average day. Every day is so different. 

CHOUDHARY: Well, that’s part of what you love about it, too, right? 

MOLINA: Yeah, yeah. No, I love, you know, every single day coming in. It still doesn’t get old to me, it’s just like, Oh my God, I’m walking into the White House and then getting the ability to think proactively and learn every single day.

You’re just learning, you know, a million things and I love that aspect of it. It’s different every day. You’re learning constantly and you again, get to do it with the best people. 

CHOUDHARY: Yeah. Yeah. So you mentioned that part of your job, which is doing a thousand different things, is managing the media directors.

So you are very much a people leader.  And I remember every time that I would knock on your door because I wanted to sit on your couch and air my grievances, somebody else was already sitting there airing their grievances. So you almost acted like, I don’t know, like an in house therapist for so many people on the team.

Why is it important for you to invest in your team and show up for your people? And beyond that, how does that shape team culture? Specifically in this environment, which is so stressful. Like people just are looking for a reason to fly off the handle. How do you kind of manage all of that? 

MOLINA: Yeah, Iit  is a really stressful environment.

And I think, you know, oftentimes people are really hard on themselves because we feel the pressure of ensuring that we’re delivering the best that we can. And I think for my team, we’re very much open door policy people. Come into my office. 

CHOUDHARY: From both doors. I think this is funny to note, is that there’s two doors to your office.

So like at any given time someone is trying to come in and you just don’t know which direction.

MOLINA: Yeah and I do love that, I think it’s important. I really try to ensure that people know that I am reachable and that, you know, you can come to me with anything, especially my team. I think they all work so incredibly hard and I really just love having the ability to build a good relationship with them.

So they can feel that  they can come to me with any challenge and that I am here to problem solve. You know, I think, as a manager, I see myself first and foremost as just problem solving all day long. But that I want to help them problem solve and whenever they feel like they’re at a crossroad where they don’t really know where to go.

 And I think it’s just, you know, it’s really important for all of us to kind of build community and just be here for each other. That is just really, really important because, as you mentioned, it’s a really stressful job and  there’s always so much going on. But I also like to check in. I always tell them, how are you doing?

Like, yes, okay, work, but like, how are you doing right now? And I think that’s just really, really important to ensure that there is a good like team culture and we’re building up morale and ensuring that people are being challenged, that they’re working towards goals, that they have something to aspire to every single day and just keeping people motivated.

It’s also really important, you know, especially given that we sometimes deal with really hard, hard issues. I think I really try my best to have my door open 24/7 and just be there for as many folks as I can, because, you know, I was really fortunate to have incredible, mentors and bosses throughout my career.

And I just really, that I still am really close with, and I really just try to, do that as much as I can for my team, because I just think it’s so, so important for like your overall wellbeing and just like ensuring that we’re getting the best of someone. 

CHOUDHARY: Absolutely. And then you’re not getting burned out.

And like that’s so easy to do in a job like this. 

So kind of in the same vein, how do you take care of yourself while serving in this stressful environment? Like we talked about you’ve been here since day one. Particularly in the context of being a people leader where it’s one thing to be there for people. But it’s also, it’s kind of like how therapists also have therapists, you know. Because you were also then retaining this heavy information. And I know you carry people’s emotions with you because I know that I’ve had tough conversations with you, and then the next day you’ve checked in on me because it was still weighing on you. So how do you take care of yourself, and what would you recommend to somebody else about who might be up and coming in this field of what they should do?

MOLINA: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I think it’s so, so important because beyond having your North Star, it’s also just like checking in with yourself knowing your limitations and how far you can and cannot go. It’s so important. It’s something I emphasize to my team all the time. I think I try to find small moments. I remember Kate Bedingfield and Jen Psaki at that point gave me the best advice that I ever received working here. I remember I was sitting in Kate’s office and Jen walked in, but I was just like crying about a specific situation.

And I used to go into her office and cry a lot. Which is, you know, like, yes. 

CHOUDHARY: That’s me to you. 

MOLINA: And she gave me the best advice. She was just like, you know, whenever this job weighs on you, just take a walk around the campus. And I was like, what? Like, how is that going to fix this? And it’s the best advice because any single time where I’m just kind of like, I don’t know how to fix something and it’s really frustrating, any given moment, I just take a walk. And that has helped me out so much. And it’s a good kind of reminder, right? Like, we get so caught up in our day to days. You know, you take a walk, and you’re just like, you see the, the White House like right in front of you, and it’s like, this has been here for a long time, there’s been many people who have come and go, I’m gonna, you know, it’s, it’s just part of the process, and you, you’re reminded that you’re, you’re part of something much bigger, and like your problem then becomes really, really small.

So, you know, I think I try to do that as much as I can, take walks, finding community is really important,  I think having the go to people that you can kind of just like go and vent to is like really important throughout your career I’ve done that my whole life and it’s really important to just build community wherever you are and yeah, finding like guilty pleasures.

You know, I will have a cookie whenever it’s a bad day. I’m like, it’s 6 p. m. I’m like, I’m gonna go have a coffee and a cookie or I’m gonna go get a McFlurry from McDonald’s. Those are the bad, bad days that I do that. But no, I think it’s, you know, kind of finding those moments for yourself,  finding outlets.

Like I said, I like to run and that really helps me not feel as overwhelmed. And finding community, I would say, are like my core pillars. 

CHOUDHARY: Yeah, yeah. So let’s transition into the last part of the interview, which is the rapid fire questions. So, what is the favorite job you’ve ever held? You can’t say this one. 

MOLINA: Oh, why not? Well, I love this one. 

CHOUDHARY: You can’t say this one. 

MOLINA: Obviously, I mean, this has been my favorite job. You know, I love campaigns. Campaigns are always so fun, and you’re just like building towards something. It’s a very clear end goal. God, I can’t choose a favorite. I’m really bad.

I’m gonna suck at all of these. 

CHOUDHARY: Okay, okay. We’ll move to the next one. Heels or flats? 

MOLINA: Oh, God, you know, aspirationally I would say heels, but reality is flats. 

CHOUDHARY: Yeah, there’s a lot of walking around this campus, favorite pop up song? Oh,

MOLINA: It depends on my mood, like what I’m walking towards. Eye of the Tiger is forever my pump up song. My husband and I have this, like, really silly tradition where we’ll play that song to pump each other up before any big moment, but I also am a big fan of Bad Bunny.

I would say those are my pump up songs. 

CHOUDHARY: Okay, what is your favorite office wear brand? I say this because you are very stylish. 

MOLINA: Oh, thank you. 

CHOUDHARY: The listeners need to know.  

MOLINA: I do Rather Runway. I always order Trina Turk, Black Halo, would be my go to’s. Okay. But Rather Runway is like the best thing…

Not an advertisement for that. 

CHOUDHARY: I’ve seen you carrying the bag and scurrying out in the middle of the day to return the clothes. 

Okay, two more rapid fire questions. What were three words that you would use to describe yourself when you first started your career? 

MOLINA: Ooh, hungry, eager…hungry, eager. And ready, I don’t know. 

CHOUDHARY: I think those are good. What are three words you would use to describe yourself now? 

MOLINA: Hmm, I would still say hungry. I would say blessed.  , and, what else? What is my third? I feel like ready is still accurate. Still ready. Still ready, still ready. 

CHOUDHARY: Okay, and then the last question, this is a question I ask everybody who comes on the pod. And I probably have asked you this before, honestly. What is one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you were first starting out? 

MOLINA: Hmm. I think, you know, just being confident and like, your timing and trusting in like, the process. And you know, for me, I… I never in a million years thought that I would end up here. And I think it’s just important to kind of remind yourself to give yourself grace and be open to every opportunity because you never know where something will take you. So, I think just being as open as possible and… Not doubting yourself because you’re not where you want to be at that point and in that moment.

You don’t know what you’re gonna gain from a specific experience. So I think just maximize every opportunity that you’re in and give yourself grace. 

CHOUDHARY: I think that’s really beautifully said. Thank you so much Jen for being here today. Thank you for making time. It is so wonderful to see you and I hope I get to see you again soon.

MOLINA: Thank you for having me. This was fun.