Marylou Olivarez Mason

Marylou Olivarez Mason (born 1935) is a former American civil servant of Hispanic descent.

She was born Marylou Hernandez in San Antonio, Texas and came to Michigan with her family as a seasonal farm worker. The family settled in Saginaw. Mason was educated at St. Joseph High School. She married and the couple had five children; unfortunately, they later divorced and she became a single mother. She worked in a doctor's office, starting as receptionist and eventually becoming the office manager. She studied at the Saginaw School of Nursing part-time, graduating in 1969. She next worked at various nursing jobs until 1977, when she was hired by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. In 1986, she began working for the Michigan Hispanic Latino Commission as executive director, the first woman to hold that position. Initiatives by Mason included Michigan Hispanic Heritage Month, the Hispanic Student Summit and Legislative Advocacy Day in Lansing. She retired at the end of 2015.

She married George E. Mason, a former Assistant Attorney General.

She was the first Hispanic woman to serve on the board of directors for Lansing Community College. She received the Diana L. Gorham Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lansing YWCA, the Cesar Chavez Community Service Award, the Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things Award from the National Women's History Project's Michigan chapter and the Regional Mujer Award from the National Hispana Leadership Institute. In 2000, she was named Hispanic Woman of the Year. She received the Ohtli Award from the Mexican government in 2005. In 2014, she was named to the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Mason was also co-founder of a college in Guadalajara.