Jeanne Kohl-Welles

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle) has represented the 36th Legislative District in the Washington State Senate since 1995 and for three years in the state House of Representatives where she served as majority whip. Senator Kohl-Welles served as chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee for years, during which time she was the prime sponsor of gender equity tuition waiver legislation. She currently is chair of the Senate Labor, Commerce, Research & Development Committee and serves on the Senate Health & Long-Term Care, Rules, and Ways & Means committees. She also is a member of the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee, Joint Legislative Systems Committee (chair), Washington State Institute for Public Policy Board, K-20 Education Network Board, Governor's Early Learning Council, and Washington State Arts Commission. She represents Washington on the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education. Kohl-Welles holds a Ph.D. in sociology of education from UCLA. She was also a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government's Senior Executives in State and Local Government, a fellow with the Center for Women Policy Studies' Foreign Policy Institute and GlobalPower program, and the Center for Policy Alternatives' Flemming Fellows program and Eleanor Roosevelt Global Leadership Institute.