Brooke Rollins

Brooke Christine Leslie was born on April 10, 1972, in Dallas, Texas. Leslie was raised in Glen Rose. She was the oldest of three children born to Hugh and Helen Leslie. Hugh was the front office manager of a Hilton hotel in Saint Paul, while Helen managed a farm; they later divorced. Leslie assisted her mother in running a flower shop after the divorce. By 1989, Leslie had become the Area VIII president of Future Farmers of America and a member of 4-H. She began supporting conservatism after watching the first inauguration of Ronald Reagan. Leslie graduated from Glen Rose High School in 1990 and attended Texas A&M University as a pre-law student. By 1994, Leslie had become the student body president of the university, the first female to hold the position in its history. She later served as the speaker pro tempore of the student senate and as the chair of the Texas A&M Judicial Court. Rollins was also the Cotton Bowl Classic Queen. She graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural development and from the University of Texas School of Law with a Juris Doctor.

Early career (1999–2003)

By April 1999, Leslie had become an attorney for Hughes and Luce. In June, she married Mark Rollins; they have four children. In the 2002 Texas gubernatorial election, she served as Governor Rick Perry's deputy general counsel for his campaign. In February 2002, the campaign named her as his policy director.

Trump administration work (2016–2021)

In August 2016, Donald Trump named Rollins to his economic advisory council. In February 2018, the real estate developer Reed Cordish resigned from his position as the director of the Office of American Innovation. The Trump administration appointed Rollins to succeed Cordish that month. At the office, she worked with Jared Kushner on prison reform legislation. In an effort to assert his authority, Kushner proposed appointing Rollins as the director of the Domestic Policy Council, a move that would have her control most domestic issues for the Trump administration with the exception of immigration. Mick Mulvaney's appointment as the acting White House chief of staff secured the position for the political advisor Joe Grogan, a Mulvaney appointee. As a federal government shutdown continued into January 2019, Kushner and Rollins began working on a long-term immigration proposal that would end the shutdown.

Rollins, alongside Ja'Ron Smith, coordinated with the Department of Housing and Urban Development on responding to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on minorities. Rollins had a key role in Trump's criminal justice reform agenda, including in developing the First Step Act. In May 2020, The New York Times reported that Trump was set to name Rollins as the acting director of the Domestic Policy Council following the resignation of Joe Grogan. Although Trump advisors had largely agreed to appoint Derek Lyons to the position, Rollins was viewed as a candidate who could appear on television. As protests against police brutality emerged across the United States that month, Rollins stated that the Trump administration would seek to fix divisions within the country. She was involved in policy planning for Trump's presumptive second term and had begun to organize transition planning alongside Chris Liddell, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy coordination, by September. Rollins was a member of Trump's 1776 Commission and helped produce its report.

Texas Public Policy Foundation (2003–2018)

In December 2002, after receiving a recommendation from Perry, the Texas Public Policy Foundation named Rollins as its president. She began serving in the position the following month. In 2007, Rollins became the first female speaker at the College Station Aggie Muster, which honors deceased Texas A&M former students.

As the Texas Public Policy Foundation's president, Rollins led the politically declining institution to relevance; The Texas Observer wrote that the foundation had become a "bedrock institution of the Texas right" by 2011. Her policy work included criminal justice reform. Rollins increased the number of staffers from three to one hundred. In 2011, Texas Monthly named her as one of the twenty-five most powerful Texans. Rollins left the Texas Public Policy Foundation in 2018.