Steven Olender is a leading expert in child welfare policy, systems reform, and legislative strategy. He partners with advocacy organizations, coalitions, and foundations to design and advance policies that build the infrastructure for children and families to thrive. Steven has played a central role in shaping and advancing major bipartisan federal reforms, including the Family First Transition Act, the Supporting Foster Youth and Families through the Pandemic Act, the Supporting America’s Children and Families Act, and the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act.

Steven brings deep expertise in translating complex policy goals into actionable strategies that achieve meaningful change. He has co-authored widely used publications, including Kin-Specific Foster Home Approval: Recommended Standards of National Organizations and Implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act: A Technical Guide for Agencies, Policymakers, and Other Stakeholders, as well as a number of technical assistance resources.

At the Children’s Defense Fund, Steven helped direct the child welfare policy portfolio and co-led the Child Welfare and Mental Health Coalition, a partnership of more than 200 organizations dedicated to child welfare reform. As Senior Advisor for Policy Innovation at Think of Us, he was a founding member of the Center for Lived Experience and helped establish the organization as a leader in federal child welfare policy, expanding its influence across the highest levels of government and advancing a vision for policy that centers the voices and perspectives of impacted communities.

Steven currently serves as Senior Fellow at Think of Us, where he leads policy development and innovation, and Subject Matter Expert for the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network, where he provides technical assistance to state agencies and kin-serving organizations. Steven also serves on the Advisory Committee for the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, the nonprofit arm of the largest bicameral, bipartisan caucus in Congress. He holds a Master’s in Public Policy with an emphasis in social and urban policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

When he isn’t nerding out over child and family policy, Steven is an avid reader, a budding triathlete, and human to Walter, an enormous, clumsy mutt who is indisputably the goodest boy.