Linda Olson’s passion to promote citizen involvement in the community was one reason she decided to run for the District 2 city council seat.

Olson has been a volunteer serving on the Keep Englewood Beautiful committee for about eight years and is running for the council to get more involved and try to urge more people to be involved in the community.

“I believe I can bring a lot to the council,” she said. “I know I am a collaborative leader who can bring people together to formulate a solution to a problem. I believe in hearing the voices of the people and using the information gathered to develop solutions through new and creative approaches to the issue.”

Minnesota native Olson earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in parks administration from the same school. She earned her Ph.D. in human communications from the University of Denver.

She is a professor and department director for the community engagement leadership program at the University of Denver.

Olson, her husband and three children have lived in Englewood since 1986.

Olson acknowledged that, like everyone else, she perceives finance as the largest problem facing the city in the near future. She said after the briefing and tour of the city-owned property near the McLellan Reservoir that the land presents a great potential source of revenue and getting that property leased is critical to the city’s future.

She said people are the greatest asset and feels she has the energy to help people see the value of community involvement.

“That is the courses I teach at DU,” she said. “Now, I want to practice what I teach.”

Olson said she has attended city council meetings and she believes some procedural changes would help encourage residents to voice opinions on issues facing the city.

“Now, the residents speaks and, later in the meeting, council members can respond to the comments,” Olson said. “I feel there should be more of a discussion between the people and the council, provided the discussion doesn’t take an excessive amount of time.”

She also would like to see better communications between the residents and the city.

“National Night Out is great but it is only once a year,” she said. “I would like for the city and the council to encourage frequent neighborhood gathering like are held on National Night Out. I also would like to see a wide use of technology such as the Internet and Facebook to provide a well-used channel of communication with residents.”

She added that her focus will be to help Englewood be a stable, livable, sustainable community for all its people.