Experts

Brooke L. Rollins is the President and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, one of the nation’s premier free market think tanks. Over the past decade, she has emerged as one of the nation’s most thoughtful and articulate defenders, in both media and policy, of the principles of liberty and limited government.

Under Rollins’ leadership, the Foundation has grown from a small policy shop with fewer than a half-dozen employees in San Antonio, Texas, to a major force in the national conservative and liberty movements, with nearly forty employees and a new headquarters under construction just two blocks from the Texas State Capitol in Austin. In that period, the Foundation has driven the state and national conversations on topics such as education, taxes, tort reform, criminal justice, health care, immigration, and beyond.

Brooke Rollins’ vision, developed and implemented at the Foundation every day, is one of state policy as the driver of the national agenda. With Washington, D.C. having taken the nation down a decades-long path of big spending, high taxes, and mounting debt, it is the states—and especially Texas—that will chart the course of reform and liberty that will save America.

Before joining the Foundation, Rollins served as Governor Rick Perry’s Deputy General Counsel, and later as his Policy Director.

She attended Texas A&M University and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture Development. While at Texas A&M, Rollins was the first female to serve as Student Body President and was recognized as the top graduate based on academics, leadership, and service. In 2007, Rollins was invited back to campus as the Aggie Muster speaker.

Rollins graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law and spent several years as a litigator with Hughes & Luce, L.L.P., in Dallas, Texas, focusing primarily on complex commercial litigation. She also completed a federal judicial clerkship with the Honorable Barbara M.G. Lynn, a United States Federal District Judge in the Northern District of Texas.

She received the 2008 Thomas Roe Award, the top honor for free market think tank leadership, at the State Policy Network’s annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Rollins was recognized in Texas Monthly as one of the 25 most influential leaders in Texas. In 2013, Rollins was invited to join the Young Presidents' Organization which unites approximately 20,000 business leaders in more than 120 countries—creating better leaders through education and the exchange of ideas.

Media appearances for Rollins have extended from local Texas newspapers to major international publications, in keeping with her imperative to the Foundation to be Texas-focused and nationally relevant. Her most recent major hits include a segment debating Texas versus California on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity;” Fox Business Network’s “Stossel;” several guest spots discussing matters from energy policy to education reform to Aggie football on Bill Bennett’s nationally-syndicated radio show “Morning in America;” and even a stint as guest-host of Salem radio’s “Mike Gallagher Show.” Rollins is an ideal and always relevant participant in shows and discussions on nearly any topic affecting the great American conversation. 

Rollins and her husband Mark, an executive in the energy business, live in Fort Worth with their four young children—Luke, Jake, Anna, and Lillian.