Olivia Golden is CLASP’s interim executive director. She served as the organization’s executive director from 2013 to 2022. An expert in child and family programs at the federal, state, and local levels, she has a lifelong commitment to better lives for children and families and to racial and economic justice as well as a track record of delivering results in the nonprofit sector and at all levels of government. For the past two years, she has been consulting on policy advocacy and leadership development in the nonprofit sector, including serving as Senior Policy Advisor to the Foundation for Child Development. Her recent paper, Cutting Child Poverty in Half and More, co-authored with Vivian Tseng, President of the Foundation for Child Development, draws lessons for future strategy from advocates’ and organizers’ insights about pandemic-era federal policy achievements.

During the eight years she served as Commissioner for Children, Youth, and Families and then as Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1993-2001), Ms. Golden was a key player in expanding and improving Head Start and creating Early Head Start, implementing landmark reform of public benefits programs, tripling the level of funding for child care, and doubling adoptions from foster care. As an Institute fellow at the Urban Institute from 2008 to 2013, Ms. Golden spoke, wrote, and led major initiatives on poverty and the safety net, families’ economic security, and children’s well-being. Under her leadership from 2001 to 2004, the D.C. Children and Family Services Agency emerged from federal court receivership and markedly improved the lives of children in the District. Her book Reforming Child Welfare [2009] melds this experience with original research to recommend policy, practice, and leadership strategies to improve outcomes for children and families who are particularly vulnerable. During 2007, she oversaw the management of all state government agencies as New York’s director of state operations. She was also director of programs and policy at the Children’s Defense Fund (1991-1993), a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (1987-1991), and budget director of Massachusetts’s Executive Office of Human Services (1983-1985). Her book, Poor Children and Welfare Reform [1992], draws lessons from welfare programs around the country that tried to make a difference for families by serving two generations, both parent and child. Ms. Golden holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where she earned a B.A. in philosophy and government.