Kim Olson

PROFILE

Kim Olson provides expertise and technical assistance to state governments studying, legislating, or implementing automated savings programs as part of Pew’s retirement savings team. These programs provide private sector employees who lack access to workplace retirement savings plans with a simple way to make regular IRA contributions via payroll deduction.

Prior to joining Pew, Olson served as policy director to Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read. In this role, she designed policies, wrote program rules, and advanced legislation to help Oregonians save for the future, most notably through the first-in-the-nation auto-IRA program, OregonSaves. Olson also served as a senior adviser at the Behavioral Insights Team, where she used behavioral science concepts to inform policy and improve public services in state and city governments. She began her career in the U.S. Foreign Service in diplomatic assignments at the U.S. embassies in Bern, Switzerland, and Ankara, Turkey.

Olson holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies and German from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in German and European studies from Georgetown University.