Andersen Award

Joan Mell, a supporter of WashCOG for more than a decade, has brought her experience in government and in the courtroom to the Coalition.

Government transparency has long been among her priorities. She was counsel in Nissen v Pierce County, which established that just because government records were created or stored with technology that didn’t exist when the state Public Records Act came about in 1972 didn’t mean they weren’t still records subject to disclosure under the PRA.

She represented WashCOG in its successful 2021 litigation against the Washington State Redistricting Commission.

Her current mission is reining in the Washington state legislature from exercising an overly broad, new definition of “legislative privilege.”

Joan is passionate about correcting injustices. She has pursued government accountability through her work in numerous professional associations, including the Washington Employment Lawyers Association, teh Washington State Association for Justice and Northwest Police Misconduct Attorneys, in addition to her work with WashCOG.

The Andersen Award is given annually to an individual or organization that has done something extraordinary to advance the efforts of the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

It is named for the former Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, who served from 1992 until his retirement in 1995. Andersen was a founding member of the WashCOG board of directors and the first recipient of its James Madison Award.