The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Stephanie Allen as Director of Media Relations and Speechwriting, effective Oct. 1, 2023. Ms. Allen has served as Director of Speechwriting and Senior Adviser to the Chair since March 2023, and she replaces Aisha Johnson, who recently departed the agency. 

“Stephanie and I have worked together at the SEC and previously at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC),” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “I am confident that her experience in media relations will benefit our continued efforts to communicate transparently with the public about our work executing the SEC’s mission.”

“I am grateful for Aisha’s service to the agency these last two-plus years,” Chair Gensler added. “She has ably guided our daily media interaction, and we wish her very well in her next steps.” 

Ms. Allen will serve as the primary spokesperson for the SEC and Chair Gensler, and will lead media relations for the Office of Public Affairs. She was previously the Executive Director of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity. Before that, she was the Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing at Promontory Financial Group, an IBM Company. After working for two Senators earlier in her career, she served as Chair Gensler’s speechwriter at the CFTC. She received an M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. from Emory University.

Ms. Johnson was appointed the Director of Media Relations in May 2021. Prior to joining the SEC, she was a communications advisor on Capitol Hill. Ms. Johnson served as the National Press Secretary in the office of U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), the Press Secretary for the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and on the communications staff of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. She holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.