Barbara O’Brien

Barbara O'Brien served as Colorado's 47th lieutenant governor from 2007 to 2011. She was the fourth woman to hold the position of lieutenant governor in the state.

O'Brien was born April 18, 1950, in Brawley, California. She obtained her Ph.D. in English from Columbia University.

Prior to her political career, O'Brien worked as a speechwriter and policy advisor for Governor Richard Lamm. She also worked for the University of Colorado at Denver as the director of campus affairs and later served the university as the director of the Institute for International Business. From 1990 to 2006, O'Brien served as president of the Colorado Children's Campaign, a statewide public policy and advocacy nonprofit organization. As president, she worked to increased funding for schools, expanded early childhood education, created charter schools, increased access to health care for uninsured children, reduced teen smoking, and expanded after school programs.

After leaving the lieutenant governor's office, O'Brien served as a senior policy fellow at the Piton Foundation and then became president of Get Smart Schools (now called Catapult Leadership), a nonprofit that prepares school administrators hired for low-income schools. In November 2013, O'Brien was elected as the at-large school director of the Denver Public Schools School Board. She left the office in November, 2021.

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