Margaret Olmos

Director, Compassionate Education Systems, FosterEd California,

National Center for Youth Law

Margaret Olmos is director of the National Center for Youth Law's Compassionate Education Systems (NCYL-CES) initiative, which aims to improve the educational outcomes of young people experiencing homelessness, involved in the foster care system, and on juvenile probation. NCYL-CES works in local communities to ensure students receive compassion from the many adults entrusted to support them and are guided to graduate from high school and find their self-defined futures. Olmos also directs the FosterEd California project on behalf of NCYL in support of this CES initiative. She was previously assistant superintendent of the Student Programming division for the Recovery School District in New Orleans, Louisiana, and served in the Obama Administration as White House deputy director of research and U.S. Department of Education chief of staff for the Office for Civil Rights. She began her career as an AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps member. Olmos received her MA in comparative politics from Queens University in Northern Ireland.

updated 2024

Contributing topics

Continuous school improvement & support

Education finance

Educational governance & policy

Supporting students’ social-emotional, mental & physical health

Contributing initiatives

CORE-PACE Research Partnership

COVID-19 Recovery

Commentary by Margaret Olmos