As senior director of engagement and Right on Immigration in the Foundation’s Washington, D.C., office, Ken Oliver is at the center of the landmark Texas Public Policy Foundation initiative that highlights and champions policies that secure the border, restore the rule of law, and fix and improve legal immigration to the United States.
In tackling this task, Oliver is leveraging the full range of his previous experience as a successful coalition builder in the conservative movement, a public diplomacy professional, and a bilingual communicator. Prior to joining the Foundation, Oliver was founding director of MRC Latino, the media research center project that challenged liberal dominance and rhetoric of U.S. Spanish-language media, particularly on immigration-related issues.
Most of Oliver’s career has been divided between his native Washington, D.C., and his mother’s homeland of Puerto Rico. In Washington, during President George W. Bush’s administration, Oliver served as special assistant to the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, as well as White House director of specialty media. Oliver is also a former program review analyst at the Voice of America and news editor at the NBC Radio Network.
In Puerto Rico, Oliver served as special assistant to former Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño, as the assistant secretary of state, and as the special assistant to the administrator of the Puerto Rico Economic Development Administration. He is also a distinguished, award-winning journalist having worked for Caribbean Business and the island’s leading daily newspaper El Nuevo Día.
Ken and his wife, Zenaida, have two sons and live in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.