Olson appointed to state Group Insurance Board

Gov. Scott McCallum has appointed UW–Madison staff member Esther Olson to the state Group Insurance Board.

The board sets policy and oversees administration of the group health, life, income continuation and other insurance programs offered to state employees.

The board is made up of five ex officio members from various state agencies and five members appointed by the governor. One appointee is always a member of the state’s education community.

Olson, assistant director of the Physical Sciences Lab and the Synchrotron Radiation Center at the Kegonsa Research Campus, is the first university representative to serve on the board.

“My presence on the board will give the university community an active voice in how the state’s group insurance policies are set and programs are administered,” Olson says.

Olson’s two-year term on the board will add to an already busy schedule of campus involvement. She serves on the Academic Staff Executive Committee, the Academic Staff Assembly and the chancellor’s Legislative Strategy Committee, and she is president of the Academic Staff Public Representation Organization.