Personalities

Darcy Olsen serves as president and CEO of the Goldwater Institute, a groundbreaking state think tank for conservative policy in the United States. Under Olsen’s leadership, the Goldwater Institute has acted as a policy architect for many successful reforms, including several school choice laws, initiatives to protect private property, and broad, across-the-board tax cuts. An authority on state policy trends in education reform, economic policy, and government reform, Olsen has been a guest on National Public Radio, the O’Reilly Factor, and the Dennis Miller Show. Olsen’s opinions have been widely published in such outlets as USA Today and the National Review, and she has provided testimony before Congress. In 2006, Olsen received the national Roe Award for noteworthy achievement in state public policy. Olsen also serves on the board of directors for the Arizona School Choice Trust, a scholarship organization helping children from Arizona’s lowest-income families. She was previously the director of education policy at the Washington D.C.-based Cato Institute, and has served as a transitional house manager for the D.C. Coalition for the Homeless.