Wendy Bhagat
Director, Product Marketing & Delivery Group
Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education
Jessica Barrett Simpson
Program Manager, Digital and Customer Care, Office of Federal Student Aid
U.S. Department of Education
The Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid serves over 40 million students and borrowers. FSA has undertaken a digital transformation effort over the past few years that has consolidated multiple websites, phone numbers, and communications into a single set of flexible platforms. New teams have been set up to focus on user experience design and product management, and new tools launched to enable self-service such as a virtual assistant. When the pandemic hit and student loans were paused, FSA was able to utilize these technical capabilities to respond quickly and engage with customers.