Jill Tolles — out of the frying pan, into the oven | Opinion
The following excerpt is from an op-ed article originally published in the Reno Gazette Journal, Jill Tolles — out of the frying pan, into the oven.
A former adjunct professor of Communication Studies at UNR, a faculty member of the National Judicial College, a three-term Reno Assemblywoman, and now executive director of the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities, Jill Tolles is accustomed to challenges. In fact, she welcomes them.
Leading a nonpartisan policy think tank named after popular Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, Jill Tolles is well-suited to advance the Guinn Center’s evidenced-based solutions for Nevada — through research, public engagements and partnerships.
Reflecting on her time in Carson City: “Lawmakers are bombarded with all these competing voices about what to do and what not to do. Oftentimes, those voices come from national agendas or from political partisan agendas, or from special interest groups. I felt while serving in the Legislature it’s really important to have a place you can go for factual information in order to make good decisions on behalf of everyone that you represent. While serving, I looked to the Guinn Center for unbiased information to help me formulate questions that I would ask in hearings and at times, how I would land on certain issues.”
Jill continued on the need for data-driven research and independent policy analysis, and why she agreed to lead the Guinn Center after retiring from the Legislature: “I jumped at the chance because I truly believe that in this increasingly divided environment where the polarizing ‘noise’ is so loud and where ‘interests’ pit you against each other, we need a place like the Guinn Center that helps bridge the gap.”
Hyper-partisanship has become an increasingly prickly problem both nationally and in Nevada. A recent story in Jon Ralston’s Nevada Independent highlighted an analysis of votes on hundreds of bills from the 2025 session showing that "moderate voting records were the exception, rather than the norm.”
Assemblywoman Tolles was known in Carson City for trying to erect bridges between Democrats and Republicans. She thinks bills not only have a better chance of passing with bipartisan support — they also end up being better bills.
“I think that we make better laws when we understand an issue from all the sides because it helps us to identify where you may have unintended consequences," she said. "It helps to identify what the good and the bad outcomes potentially are of any legislation.”
The latest legislative session in Carson City saw the usual bickering and last-minute negotiations that resulted in a lack of progress on a number of crucial statewide issues.
Still, Jill Tolles was pleased with the role the Guinn Center played in many of the final policies that survived and made it into law.
“In three of the top five biggest bills that passed this session, the Guinn Center had research that was informative to that process," she said. "And that's our goal. We're not advocates or lobbyists, so we don't show up in support or opposition to bills. I'm thrilled with the fact that in some of the major pieces of legislation around housing affordability, around education, and around health care — the Guinn Center's research was at the center of a lot of those discussions.”