Jenifer Sarver, Principal of Sarver Strategies

Jenifer is the principal of Sarver Strategies, a communications consultancy. She has more than two decades of experience in media relations, crisis communications, speechwriting, coalition building, and media and presentation skills training. Her career has spanned the corporate, nonprofit, and political worlds, helping clients develop messages that will resonate with their core audiences and create strategies for effectively delivering those messages through the appropriate communications channels.

In launching Sarver Strategies, Jenifer focused her skills on training and storytelling, helping clients develop a narrative that conveys their core values, and then preparing them to effectively deliver that message. Jenifer has extensive experience in media and presentation skills training, having conducted workshops and one-on-one trainings for a wide range of public figures including CEOs, foreign leaders, local and state political candidates and office holders, and noprofit leaders. Jenifer teaches courses on public speaking, advocacy communications, speechwriting, storytelling, and confidence in communication, among other topics. She regularly presents at conferences and delivers keynotes remarks. She has conducted international trainings in Kenya, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, and Australia.

Jenifer spent nearly six years as Chief of Staff to Ambassador Karen Hughes, while she was the Worldwide Vice Chair of Burson, Cohn & Wolf. In addition to supporting Ambassador Hughes, leading the Austin office, and helping drive new business development, Jenifer managed a wide variety of accounts, from corporate communications to developing internal employee communications campaigns to overseeing all aspects of grassroots and media relations for a coalition. She has also developed expertise in crisis communications, helping clients manage difficult situations from data breaches to bank failures.

Jenifer was the Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Bush Administration. She also served as the Director of The Archer Center and was a Senior Advisor on the Washington, D.C. staff of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Jenifer worked in public relations at Cunningham Communications and Public Strategies, representing high tech and communications clients, and began her professional career in political campaigns, working as a Finance Director, and a Deputy Campaign Manager on two separate congressional races during the 1996 election cycle.

She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies. She joined The University’s faculty as a lecturer in 2023. She received the degree of Master of Public Administration from American University. In 2017 she was selected as a Presidential Leadership Scholar. She is on the Board of the Women’s Public Leadership Network and the Salvation Army of Austin. She is on the Advisory Councils of the UT Austin College of Communication, the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life and the LBJ Women’s Campaign School; and was chairman of the board of the Texas 4000 for Cancer. She is a member of the Texas Lyceum class of 2014. She was a member of the 2010 Leadership Austin Essential Class. Jenifer is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Civil Society Fellowship, A Partnership of ADL and The Aspen Institute, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Jenifer ran in the 2018 Republican Primary to represent Texas’ 21st Congressional District in the U.S. Congress.

Page last updated 12:17 PM, September 11, 2023