Associate Director for Communications, U.S. Census Bureau

Jeannie (Layson) Shiffer, who was nominated by President Obama, has been the Associate Director for Communications since May 5, 2014.

She and her staff of 160 employees supervise the dissemination of statistics and information about the Census Bureau’s mission to the public, businesses and members of Congress through marketing, public relations and digital, online and social media channels.

Shiffer spent the previous two years as director of the Office of Governmental, International and Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Her responsibilities included media relations, congressional affairs, international activities, and public education and outreach.

Prior to that, Shiffer was the director of Communications and Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). She was also the agency’s chief Freedom of Information Act officer. During her tenure, she led the overhaul and redesign of the agency’s website, which was ultimately named one of the top five sites in the federal government. She launched the EAC blog and Twitter feed, and led a series of webcasts with election administrators to prepare for the 2012 federal election cycle — including Voting Goes Viral, Contingency Planning and Design Counts in Elections.

Shiffer has shared her government communications expertise with a wide variety of audiences. In 2012, she was a Voting’s Viral panelist at South by Southwest. In 2010, she was selected to be a government, media relations and communications instructor in China, sponsored by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government Chinese Civil Servant Training Program. She has traveled to Romania three times as a communications expert on U.S. government and media relations, sponsored by the James C. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communications, Training and Research. She has also served as a social media instructor for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments; the Ohio Association of Election Officials; the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers; and the National Conference of State Legislatures.