She was chosen as running mate by Bill Ritter, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Colorado in the 2006 election.[2]
The Ritter/O'Brien ticket won with 57% of the vote.[3]
As lieutenant governor she made education her signature issue.[4][5]
Ritter chose not to run for re-election in 2010,[6] and O'Brien also stepped down at the end of her term.
Prior to becoming lieutenant governor, she was a speechwriter and policy advisor for Governor Richard Lamm.[citation needed]
Barbara O'Brien was elected as the at-large school director of the Denver Public Schools School Board on November 5, 2013, claiming 59.5% of the vote and winning over Michael Kiley and Joan Poston.[7]
and was reelected in November 2017 to another term.[8]
The Denver Post newspaper stated that candidates who promised reform won the majority of local school board elections across Colorado in the November 2013 off-year election, and that O'Brien, as well as her fellow winners for Denver School Board positions, were reform candidates.[9]
As of March 2012[update], O'Brien was a senior fellow at the Piton Foundation, which uses its private funding to develop, manage, and incubate programs to create opportunities for lower-income families in Denver.[10][full citation needed]
In 2013, O'Brien was named President of Get Smart Schools, a Denver-based public education reform group.[1]
^"Final Unofficial Results". Denver Office of the Clerk and Recorder. City of Denver. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved 2013-11-22.
