Session Speaker – Government Consolidation
Marilyn Schultz
Executive Director, MySmartgov.org

Marilyn Schultz has spent her career working in state government, human services and higher education. While studying for a Ph.D. in French and Spanish literature in 1972 in Bloomington, she was challenged to run for the Indiana legislature. Her electoral victory started her 14-year service in the General Assembly, where she served on the House Ways and Means Committee and the State Budget Committee and developed expertise in school finance, higher education and issues for people with mental illness and disabilities.

Schultz later served nearly three years as the state budget director under Govs. Joe Kernan and Frank O’Bannon. She also served as director of the state’s Division of Disabilities, Aging and Rehabilitation.

In between this service in the legislative and executive branches of government, Schultz spent almost four years as executive director of the Mental Health Association in Indiana, a statewide advocacy organization. She worked for 11 years at Indiana State University, first reorganizing its government relations office and then for nine years as the vice president for planning and budgets.

Born in Louisiana, Marilyn studied at the University of Texas in Austin and holds a B.A. and M.A. degree in French and Spanish literature. She completed all coursework for a Ph.D. in these fields at Indiana University. She also studied at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, and at the universities of Madrid and Grenoble. She taught high school for a year in Houston, Texas, and at the University of Texas, DePauw University and Indiana University.