Carrying on the legacy of Andrea Mead Lawrence
Andrea Mead Lawrence was an Olympic double gold medalist, mother of five, visionary environmental leader, 16-year Mono County Supervisor, and advocate for Mono Lake’s protection. The Mono Lake Committee helps to carry on Andrea’s inspirational environmental legacy through the annual presentation of the Andrea Lawrence Award for passionate engagement in community and the land.
Pictured: Mt. Andrea Lawrence, officially designated in 2013.
Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner
The Mono Lake Committee helps to carry on Andrea’s inspirational environmental legacy through the presentation of her award at the annual Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner. The dinner is a chance to gather in memory of Andrea while enjoying food and conversation with a spectacular view of Mt. Andrea Lawrence. It is at this event that we present the Andrea Lawrence Award for passionate engagement in community and the land.
2025 event: Thursday, May 8
We had another wonderful Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner on May 8, 2025. We honored Martha Guzman in recognition of her pivotal role in elevating the urgency of the Mono Lake lake level issue while in her position as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator by bringing critical agencies together to collaboratively move toward a State Water Board hearing. A summary of the evening will be posted on our blog soon.
Andrea Lawrence Award recipients
The Andrea Lawrence Award is awarded for passionate engagement in community and the land. Find each year’s recipient below or see all recipients since 2011 here.
2024: Ryan Carle
Ryan Carle, Science Director for Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge, who has built international partnerships and connections through coordinating phalarope research at Mono Lake and other saline lakes throughout the Western Hemisphere, received the Andrea Lawrence Award in 2024.
2023: Dave Marquart
Dave Marquart, retired Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve Ranger, a dedicated and a skilled interpreter during his 36-year career, received the Andrea Lawrence Award in 2023.
2022, 2021, and 2020
The 2020, 2021, and 2022 Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner events were canceled due to COVID-19. In 2021 and 2022 on Andrea’s birthday, April 19, we posted stories and memories from some of her family, friends, and colleagues. We organized an online fundraiser for the Mono Basin Outdoor Education Center in Andrea’s memory, which raised more than $14,000 in an outpouring of generous support.
2019: Elsa Lopez
Elsa Lopez, a Los Angeles-based educator, activist, and champion of the Mono Basin Outdoor Education Center program, received the Andrea Lawrence Award in 2019.
2018: Phil Pister
Phil Pister, desert fish and golden trout conservationist, environmental ethicist, and retired California Department of Fish & Wildlife fishery biologist, received the Andrea Lawrence Award in 2018.
2017: Genny Smith
Genny Smith, author, editor, activist, and the “Naturalist Queen of the Eastern Sierra,” received the Andrea Lawrence Award in 2017.
2016: Dan & Leslie Dawson
Dan & Leslie Dawson, formerly of the Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserve (Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory and Valentine Camp), received the Andrea Lawrence Award in 2016.
2015: Ted Schade
Ted Schade, formerly of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, received the Andrea Lawrence Award in 2015.
2014: California Department of Fish & Wildlife
The California Department of Fish & Wildlife received the 2014 Andrea Lawrence Award for their dedicated work to achieve the 2013 Mono Basin Stream Restoration Agreement. Department of Fish &Wildlife staff Steve Parmenter and Nancee Murray attended the dinner to accept the award.
2013: Karen Farrell-Ingram
Karen Ferrell-Ingram, founding Board member and former Executive Director of the Eastern Sierra Land Trust, received the 2013 Andrea Lawrence Award.
2012: Bodie Foundation
The Bodie Foundation received the 2012 Andrea Lawrence Award. Bodie Foundation President Brad Sturdivant attended to accept the award.
2011: Eastern Sierra Audubon
The Eastern Sierra Audubon Society, whose work to initiate the Owens Lake Master Plan process reflected the spirit of collaboration for which Andrea was a tireless advocate, received the 2011 Andrea Lawrence Award.
2008: Mono Lake Committee
The Mono Lake Committee was honored to receive the 2008 Andrea Lawrence Award from Andrea herself.
2007: Friends of the Inyo
In 2007 Andrea started what later became the Andrea Lawrence Award. The inaugural recipient was Friends of the Inyo.
Andrea Mead Lawrence
Skiing career
Raised in Rutland, Vermont, Andrea Mead Lawrence skied competitively from 1942–1956. She won the Olympic Tryout Slalom at the age of 14 and was the youngest winner of the Harriman Cup in downhill, slalom, and combined events in 1950, at age 18. During the 1950–51 season, she entered sixteen international races in eight weeks in Europe, placing first in ten races and second in four.
Andrea was a member of the US Olympic Alpine Team in 1948, 1952, and 1956—the only American alpine skier to compete in three Olympics and one of only four women in the world to do so at that time. She was captain of the women’s team in 1952, when she won two Olympic gold medals in slalom and giant slalom.
Andrea was the only American skier to ever win two gold medals in a single Olympics, and was the only woman in the world to do so until the record was matched in 1972. In 1950, Andrea was awarded the American Ski Trophy for making the greatest contribution to the sport of skiing and Time Magazine acknowledged her contribution to her sport by putting her on the cover of their January 21st issue.
Community involvement and environmental advocacy
Andrea was an environmental and community leader and advocate who has helped preserve the beauty of the Eastern Sierra’s landscapes and communities. She served as a Mono County Supervisor and chairperson, where she represented Mono County on many important issues, including supporting the establishment of the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area and advocating for the Bodie Protection Act. She also served as a member and chairperson on the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District and served on the boards of the Yosemite Restoration Trust, Coalition for Unified Recreation in the Eastern Sierra, and the Mono Lake Committee.
Throughout her career she also founded several organizations, including Friends of Mammoth, Southern Mono Historical Society, Sierra Nevada Alliance, Sierra Nevada Regional Initiative, and the Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers.
Andrea Lawrence Fund
After Andrea’s passing in 2009, her non-profit, the Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers (ALIMAR), led by her daughter Quentin, approached the Mono Lake Committee and together both organizations crafted a plan to transfer the ALIMAR program to the Committee.
The Mono Lake Committee created the Andrea Lawrence Fund to promote and celebrate passionate engagement in community and the land with an emphasis on encouraging collaboration and inspiring youth to become environmental leaders.
The fund was established with the transfer of all assets from ALIMAR, which dissolved as an organization. All ALIMAR members became Mono Lake Committee members, and the Committee began hosting the Andrea Lawrence Award Dinner in 2011.
Special gifts in Andrea’s honor are welcome and will be dedicated to the purposes of the fund.
Mt. Andrea Lawrence
In 2013 President Obama signed legislation that named Peak 12,240, on the border between Yosemite National Park and the Inyo National Forest, Mt. Andrea Lawrence. The prominent but previously unnamed peak has sweeping views across Yosemite, the upper San Joaquin River drainage, and the Rush Creek-Mono Lake watershed.
The legislation to name the peak in her honor was advanced by California Senator Barbara Boxer and Congressman Buck McKeon. “Andrea Lawrence was an Olympic champion who dedicated her life to protecting the treasures of the Eastern Sierra.” Senator Boxer said. “Her passion and achievements were larger than life, which is why I cannot think of a more fitting tribute than to name this majestic peak in her honor.”
Top photo by Arya Degenhardt.