Barbara O'Brien (born April 18, 1950) was the 47th Lieutenant Governor of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

from 2007 to 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party. She is currently serving her second 4-year term as an elected member of the board of

Denver Public Schools The School District No. 1 in the City and County of Denver and State of Colorado, more commonly known as Denver Public Schools (DPS), is the public school system in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States. History In 1859, Owen ...

Political career

Lieutenant Governor of Colorado

She was chosen as running mate by

Bill Ritter August William Ritter Jr. (born September 6, 1956) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 41st Governor of Colorado from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the district attorney for Denver before his ele ...

, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Colorado in the 2006 election. The Ritter/O'Brien ticket won with 57% of the vote. As lieutenant governor she made education her signature issue. Ritter chose not to run for re-election in 2010, and O'Brien also stepped down at the end of her term. Prior to becoming lieutenant governor, she was a speechwriter and policy advisor for Governor

Richard Lamm Richard Douglas Lamm (August 3, 1935 – July 29, 2021) was an American politician, writer, and attorney. He served three terms as the 38th Governor of Colorado as a Democrat (1975–1987) and ran for the Reform Party's nomination for Pre ...

Denver School Board Director

Barbara O'Brien was elected as the at-large school director of the Denver Public Schools School Board on November 5, 2013, claiming 59.5% of the vote and winning over Michael Kiley and Joan Poston. and was reelected in November 2017 to another term.http://data.denverpost.com/election/results/county/denver/2017/
/ref> The ''

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in the Denver metropolitan area. it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 mil ...

'' newspaper stated that candidates who promised reform won the majority of local school board elections across Colorado in the November 2013

off-year election An off-year election in the United States typically refers to a general election held in an odd-numbered year when neither a presidential election nor a midterm election takes place. At times, the term "off-year" may also be used to refer to ...

, and that O'Brien, as well as her fellow winners for Denver School Board positions, were reform candidates.

Business career

, O'Brien was a senior fellow at the Piton Foundation, which uses its private funding to develop, manage, and incubate programs to create opportunities for lower-income families in Denver.Piton Staff
retrieved 2 March 2013. In 2013, O'Brien was named President of Get Smart Schools, a Denver-based public education reform group.

Personal

O'Brien is married to Richard O'Brien, and has two sons, Jared and Connor.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Barbara 1950 births Living people Lieutenant governors of Colorado School board members in Colorado People from Brawley, California Women in Colorado politics 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century Colorado politicians