Jessica Herrera Flanigan

Professional

Herrera-Flanigan currently is the Executive Vice President of Government & Corporate Affairs at Univision Communications Inc, where she oversees the D.C. office of UCI, including its government relations and public policy functions, and leads the Company's Community Empowerment, Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility functions. Herrera-Flanigan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the TV Board of Directors of the National Association of Broadcasters, Yale University Council, the Boards of the U.S. Center for Safe Sport and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and in an Advisory role at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the Center for Democracy & Technology.

She joined UCI in June 2015, after seven years as a partner at Monument Policy Group, a government affairs and strategic consulting firm, where she led the technology, media, and sports practices. She also represented clients on homeland security and national security issues and was a published author and frequent speaker on these topics on television, radio,and newspapers. Of note was her work leading the Reform Government Surveillance Coalition for the top 10 tech companies in the U.S.

Previously, she was the Staff Director & General Counsel of the United States House Committee on Homeland Security, where she managed the Committee's legislative, oversight, and policy staff and agenda for Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS). She joined the Committee's predecessor in 2003, where she worked for Ranking Member Jim Turner (D-TX), and Subcommittee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) on technology, privacy, civil rights and civil liberties, and cybersecurity. During the 110th Congress, Herrera-Flanigan was one of the highest ranking Hispanic staffers and the only Latina Majority Staff Director in the U.S. House. She is believed to be the first Latina to ever run a major Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Herrera-Flanigan has received numerous awards, including the NFL Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award and LISTA Corporate Citizen Award in 2016 and the Hispanic Lobbyists Association's President Award in 2015. She also received the Women in Government Relation 2007 Congressional Staff Award and the Hispanic Bar Association-D.C.'s 2007 Rising Legal Star. She was also recognized by the Women's High Tech Coalition in 2005 with its Women in Cybersecurity Award.

Before working on the Hill, Herrera-Flanigan was Senior Counsel at the Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice, where she led a team of prosecutors and investigators pursuing cybercriminals, including hackers and virus writers. She worked on such cases as the Melissa and Love Bug viruses and the 2000 Denial of Service Attacks on U.S. systems. She also served as vice-chair on the U.S. Delegation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) Experts Group on international information security. She also represented the United States at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (“APEC”) and the Organization of American States (“OAS”).

She also served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office Public Corruption Section in Washington, D.C. and as an Associate at Crowell & Moring LLP. She has served as an adjunct professor of cybercrime, criminal law, and cybersecurity at the Washington College of Law, American University and the American Military University. She also has served as a Senior Fellow to the George Washington Homeland Security Policy Institute.

Herrera-Flanigan served as the Regional V (DC,VA,WV, MD) President of the Hispanic National Bar Association in 2008-09, is a past president of the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia, and has three times been named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine (2008, 2002, 2000). She served on the CSIS Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency and on the Center for National Policy’s Military Transformation Series (MTS) Advisory Group. She also was a Fellow of Cybersecurity & Innovation at the Center for National Policy, where she worked on technology issues.

Education

Herrera-Flanigan received her B.A. with distinction in American Studies from Yale University in 1992 and her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1995. She served as the City Editor of the Yale Daily News, ran the Phoenix Film Society, and was a member of Pi Beta Phi while at Yale. She served as the Managing Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Review, Production Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, and was a Founding Editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review while at Harvard. She also graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Port Arthur, Texas.

Personal

Herrera-Flanigan is a native of Port Arthur, Texas and is of Mexican-American and Cajun descent. She is married to Thomas C. Flanigan, an entrepreneur and inventor, and they have two children.