Kristen Donoghue is the chief enforcement officer for the U.S. Department of Education’s office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). FSA administers the federal student aid programs, which, in fiscal year 2022, provided more than $111 billion in federal grants, loans, and work-study funds to nearly 10 million students attending approximately 5,500 postsecondary institutions. In total, FSA manages a federal student loan portfolio valued at more than $1.6 trillion representing more than 45 million customers.
With a background in consumer finance, regulatory compliance, and law enforcement, Donoghue joined FSA in July 2021 as a senior advisor to the chief operating officer and has led initiatives to rebuild oversight, compliance, and accountability of institutions of higher education, improve loan forgiveness programs, and represent FSA in certain negotiated rulemaking processes.
Named the chief enforcement officer in October 2021, Donoghue has led efforts to reestablish the FSA Enforcement Office to increase focus on investigating problem schools that pose the most risk to students and taxpayers, requiring greater accountability by owners of schools when the institutions fail to follow program participation rules, and partnering with state officials—including attorneys general, banking regulators, and student loan ombuds offices—to collaborate on potential investigations and enforcement actions.
Donoghue joined FSA from Capital One Financial Corporation, where she was managing vice president of compliance and led compliance for the retail bank and enterprise services. Donoghue also led Capital One’s privacy compliance function. Prior to her tenure at Capital One, Donoghue served as the enforcement director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where she led the 145-person office responsible for the bureau’s enforcement of consumer financial protection law. In that role, Donoghue led efforts resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in consumer relief and the then-largest civil monetary penalty ever levied for a violation of federal consumer financial protection law. Donoghue also developed and executed the bureau’s strategy to address markets and practices with the greatest potential for consumer harm. She built coalitions with state and federal regulators to support coordinated enforcement activity.
Donoghue earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University and holds a Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School.
Donoghue lives in Maryland with her husband. She has two children, both of whom are currently college students.