Laura Olsen is Assistant Director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth with primary responsibility for the Coalition’s communications and development work. In that capacity her role includes developing and implementing the Coalition’s media and fundraising efforts. She also manages the Shenandoah Valley campaign and oversees the Coalition’s Maryland campaign work. As a seasoned grassroots organizer, Ms. Olsen advises our outreach efforts and provides support to our partners on campaign development, organizing, media and fundraising needs. In addition, she has the lead responsibility for fiscal and staff management with the support of the Executive Director.

Ms. Olsen oversaw the Coalition’s field campaign and developed and implemented the media campaign during its successful challenge to the highly publicized Northern Virginia sales tax referendum in 2002. She is also the primary author and technical developer of the Coalition’s landmark Blueprint for a Better Region presentation, which is a technically sophisticated answer to the “how” of the Smart Growth debate.

Before joining the Coalition, Ms. Olsen served as the national Field Campaign Manager for the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP), a national coalition responsible for the federal transportation reforms adopted by Congress in 1991 and 1998. Prior to STPP, she worked with Green Corps, a national field school for environmental organizing. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont.