Dean Olsen is joining the Illinois Times as a senior writer. He was previously a statehouse reporter at The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois.
He has also previously covered state government, business, health care, Medicaid, transportation, and medicine for the Journal-Register.
He was also a media relations consultant at Memorial Health System in Springfield, where he wrote news releases, responded to news-media inquiries and pitched potential stories, among other tasks. He has also reported for the Journal Star and the Journal and Courier in Tippecanoe County.
He was also a copy editor and columnist at The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Olsen has a B.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.