Naomi Olson was a Doctoral Fellow at the NCDG while pursuing a Ph.D. in Organization Studies at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.  She received her M.E.S. in Environmental Studies at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 1987 and her BA in Psychology and Social relations at Harvard University in 1981. 

Olson's dissertation topic was: “Organizing non-state-based global governance: The structuration of the corporate accountability policy arena”. The dissertation explores organizational and field level drivers of the constitution of organizational authority. Her empirical focus is the transnational corporate social accountability policy arena where jurisdictions are undefined and institutional design options are in play. This research involves tracing the relevant histories of three organizations’ attempts to position themselves as influential policy sponsors, and their preferred institutional models as authoritative. The focal organizations – the UN, ISO and CERES – have contrasting bases of power and identities. The study suggests that such organization level factors drive initial policy positions, but that with time organizations reframe their policy positions and political strategies in ways better predicted by field-level dynamics.