Member profile: Rep. Donovan Olson
Donovan is serving his third term in the Iowa House and serves as Chair of the Environmental Protection Committee and also serves on the Economic Growth, Local Government, and Transportation Committees as well as the Agriculture & Natural Resources Budget Subcommittee. Prior to his election to the Iowa House, Olson served six years as a Boone County Supervisor.
Olson was born and raised in Boone, Iowa. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Community and Regional Planning from Iowa State University. He currently works at ISU as a distance education coordinator. Olson and his wife Sue have two children, a six-year-old daughter and a ten-year-old son. In his free time he coaches his daughter’s T-Ball team, enjoys reading and enjoys spending time with his family. Olson and his family are members of the Boone First United Methodist Church.
Olson has worked to improve standards at our public schools and to increase teacher pay. He worked to increase funding for community colleges and our state universities to increase quality and lower tuition for middle class families.
Olson strongly supported an increase in Iowa’s minimum wage. He helped craft the Iowa Power Fund, a strategy to make Iowa a world leader in renewable fuels to expand our economy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create good-paying jobs in Iowa. He also helped draft the Iowa Values Fund, a strategy to capitalize on Iowa’s strengths in biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, and information solutions.
In 2005, Olson teamed with other legislators for a “clean water camping tour” to push for clean water initiatives. Last year, he began work on a plan that empowers people to clean up water in their own watersheds. Olson helped pass Climate Change legislation aimed at developing strategies to Iowa do its part to slow, stop and reverse the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
