This evening, at our ninth Spring Fundrais­ing Gala on Mer­cer Island, we debuted a new event tra­di­tion: the Lynn Allen Awards. Named for our late sis­ter Lynn Allen, a found­ing board­mem­ber of NPI, these awards rec­og­nize peo­ple who have made indis­pens­able con­tri­bu­tions to pro­gres­sive caus­es for a decade or more.

We lost Lynn to ovar­i­an can­cer in 2011, but her spir­it has remained with us. (And so have her pub­lished works, which are pre­served by NPI at Rebuild­ing Democ­ra­cy.)

Lynn believed in the impor­tant work of orga­niz­ing rur­al com­mu­ni­ties and act­ing on issues of con­cern to peo­ple liv­ing far away from our big cities and urban areas. She believed in the pol­i­tics of inclu­sion. As com­mu­ni­ca­tions direc­tor of the Insti­tute for Wash­ing­ton’s Future, she trav­eled reg­u­lar­ly to Wash­ing­ton’s rur­al coun­ties and small towns, cham­pi­oning sus­tain­able busi­ness and agri­cul­tur­al practices.

A skilled facil­i­ta­tor and gift­ed lis­ten­er, Lynn under­stood the impor­tance of and need for effec­tive activism. Not a day goes by when we don’t miss her.

By estab­lish­ing the Lynn Allen Awards, we’re tak­ing anoth­er step to ensure that Lyn­n’s good works will be remem­bered and her lega­cy appreciated.

Tonight, we pre­sent­ed the very first Lynn Allen Awards to two extreme­ly deserv­ing hon­orees: Joni Earl and Paul Lawrence.

Joni Earl

Sound Tran­sit CEO Joni Earl speaks at NPI’s 2013 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala. (Pho­to: Lin­coln Potter/Samaya LLC for NPI)

Joni’s award com­men­da­tion is as follows:

Tapped in 2001 to take the helm of a pub­lic agency in cri­sis, Joni Earl turned Sound Tran­sit around, instill­ing a cul­ture of excel­lence. Joni deft­ly nav­i­gat­ed around treach­er­ous legal and polit­i­cal obsta­cles to restart plan­ning of the high capac­i­ty rail spine vot­ers approved in 1996 to con­nect cities in Wash­ing­ton’s urban core. Under her lead­er­ship, Sound Tran­sit secured the fed­er­al funds need­ed to begin build­ing Link light rail and won vot­er approval for a cru­cial sec­ond phase of expan­sion. Con­struc­tion of the sys­tem began in the autumn of 2003 and has been under­way ever since. Six­teen sta­tions are now open and dozens more are on the way.

Joni’s oth­er hon­ors include:

• APTA’s Extra­or­di­nary Lead­er­ship Award (2016)
• One of Seat­tle Magazine’s 25 Most Influ­en­tial Peo­ple (2005)
• One of Puget Sound Busi­ness Journal’s 20 Women of Influ­ence (2005)

Paul Lawrence

Paul Lawrence presents oral argu­ments in Lee v. State in March of 2016 (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

Paul’s award com­men­da­tion is as follows:

A for­mi­da­ble attor­ney spe­cial­iz­ing in com­plex appel­late and civ­il lit­i­ga­tion, Paul Lawrence has ably rep­re­sent­ed pub­lic ser­vants and work­ing fam­i­lies in our courts for more than thir­ty years. Dur­ing a five year stretch rang­ing from 2011 to 2016, Paul skill­ful­ly secured a series of land­mark ver­dicts against a crop of right wing ini­tia­tives that grave­ly threat­ened Wash­ing­ton’s future. Pri­or to those cas­es, Paul defend­ed Sound Tran­sit against mul­ti­ple law­suits intend­ed to weak­en or destroy it. His mas­tery of con­sti­tu­tion­al law and sound tri­al strat­e­gy have repeat­ed­ly led to cru­cial vic­to­ries for pro­gres­sive causes.

Paul’s oth­er hon­ors include:

• Select­ed for Wash­ing­ton Super Lawyers, 2001–2016, and for Wash­ing­ton Super Lawyers Top 100, 2012–2016
• Recip­i­ent of Pre­ston Gates & Ellis’ Jim Ellis Award for ser­vice as an ACLU Coop­er­at­ing Attorney
• Recip­i­ent of Greater Seat­tle Busi­ness Association’s Spe­cial Recog­ni­tion Award Col­lab­o­ra­tion for Social Change

Con­grat­u­la­tions, Joni and Paul, and thank you for your tremen­dous ser­vice to our move­ment. Your con­tri­bu­tions tru­ly have been indispensable.