Winn Strategies, LLC

Chani Wiggins

Founder & President

cwiggins@winnstrategies.net 

Chani (Winn) Wiggins is a 25-year veteran of the federal policy world, first working in senior management on Capitol Hill and later, as an Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs in the Obama administration.  Today, she works on behalf of stakeholders in the environment, energy, resilience and technology space. 

Before her move to the private sector, Chani managed the legislative affairs team at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  In that role, she led the development and implementation of DHS’s legislative strategy with Congress on cybersecurity, aviation and border security, and disaster response and recovery.  Chani was also instrumental in coordinating crisis communications with Congress on the Christmas Day attempted airplane bombing in 2009 and the BP Gulf Oil Spill in 2010. 

While on Capitol Hill, Chani served as Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) Legislative Director, former Senator Mark Dayton’s (D-MN) Deputy Chief of Staff, and former Congressman Bart Stupak’s (D-MI) Legislative and Communications Director.  She was also a senior aide to Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) on judiciary and workforce policies. Chani was known for building bipartisan networks.  She co-founded the Bipartisan Legislative Directors Group in 2007 to find common ground among the Senate’s 100 Legislative Directors. 

Chani has a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Florida, covering local government for newspapers in Georgia and Florida early in her career.

Chani is also a certified wine geek and the co-owner of TBD Wines, which has been producing (delicious) Malbecs from its vineyard in Uco Valley, Argentina since 2015.