PSARA Officers

Mike Andrew, PSARA’s Executive Director and Editor of The Retiree Advocate, is a journalist by trade. 

He came to PSARA as Associate Editor of The Retiree Advocate in April 2011, became a part-time and then a full-time PSARA organizer, and was hired as Executive Director in December 2018.

Prior to coming on board with PSARA, Mike was a full-time reporter for Seattle Gay News. Before that, he was a fishmonger. He is capable of breaking down a salmon in 90 seconds and then turning around and writing a story about it. 

Mike has managed two political campaigns, one win and one loss. He’s proudest of the loss, however, because his candidate spent only 60 cents per vote and still came in at 46%.  He is a member of the National Writers Union, and Pride At Work, an LGBTQ labor organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

Mike was born in San Francisco, went to UC Berkeley, and then came to Seattle for grad school. Mike currently lives in Seattle with his husband, Simon, and their cat, Noel. Email:  organizer@psara.org

Karen Richter is a retired public servant, who worked as a transportation planner in Tucson, Chicago and Seattle and is a retired AFSCME member. She is a co founder of the Chicago chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar.

Currently she is the Co-President of the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action  and the Vice President of the PSARA Education Fund. She also is the chair of the PSARA Fundraising Committee, and is an active member of the 34th Legislative District Democrats.  She also works with the Social Security Works, Wa Coalition. 

Karen is an avid birder, organic gardener and loves spending time in her home and neighborhood in wonderful West Seattle.

Tom Lux is a 35 year member of the Machinists Union and was on the staff of the union for eight years and serves as a member of the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee. He is on the Visiting Committee of the Harry Bridges Chair at the UW and is the President of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association.

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Rick is a retired veterinarian who has been in private practice in Oregon, worked in the pet food industry and taught at the School of Veterinary Medicine in Davis, Ca, and at Carroll College in Helena, MT. He had special interests in Animal Behavior, Animal Welfare and the relationships between humans and nonhuman animals (Anthrozoology). He has lectured internationally on these topics. He spent 5 years in the Republic of Georgia, where his wife Marcia, also a veterinarian but with an additional degree in veterinary public health, taught veterinarians how to diagnose and manage dangerous and highly contagious animal diseases. After Marcia retired in 2016, they moved to Whidbey Island where Rick pursues an interest in ceramics and clay sculpture. It was on Whidbey that Rick discovered PSARA. His major interests are the challenges to Medicare and the need for a national health plan similar to that enjoyed in countries in Europe, Canada and Latin America. Their daughter, Tracy, is an artist living in Portland, OR.

I started working for the state in 1967 and in 1968 was singled out for shop steward training. I was a shop steward for the next 25 years, I also spent time as an elected officer in my local and my bargaining team. After I retired, I was asked to be president of the Seattle RPEC Chapter, which I held for 10 years, until I was able to find a successor. I was elected to the board of the Puget Sound Council of Senior Citizens, There I stood and marched with Will and Louise Parry. I helped found the Washington State Alliance for Retired Americans and served as secretary, treasurer, Vice President and President. I spent 30 years as chair of an advocacy organization foe people of disability.

Jeff Johnson is the former President of the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) which represents more than 500,000 employees in the state of Washington.  Formerly the research Director of the WSLC, Jeff in his former life was a college professor.  He is currently on the board of the Labor Network for Sustainability where he focuses on the intersection between labor, climate change and climate justice including a “Just Transition”.

Email: president@psara.org

Retired from Boeing and SPEEA, IFPTE 2001 staff. PSARA delegate to WA Senior Lobby, Former President of Martin Luther King Jr, County Labor Council, MLKCLC ending in 2015.  Active with 11th district democrats. Past KCLS Library Trustee and Past United Way KC Board.

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Angie Bartels comes from a large working-class family and was born and raised on the southern
shores of the Ohio River in 1956. College was out of reach, so she devoted those years to the
United Farm Workers Union and raising her daughter. She worked with the UFW’s boycott
from KY to Ohio and finally in the San Joaquin Valley of CA where she learned Spanish. She
came to Seattle in 1978 and while working as a legal assistant, volunteered for many years in
the sanctuary movement for Central American refugees. Finally, at the age of 37, she earned her bachelor’s in nursing at the UW. She devoted her nursing career to low income, uninsured
patients at the 45 th St. Clinic where she was the diabetes educator for nearly 20 years. She also worked for 13 years in HIV and other infectious diseases at Bailey Boushay and the Madison Clinic at Harborview. She retired at the age of 58 in 2014 due to her own health issues and her
husband’s ALS diagnosis. She nursed Tony through his battle with ALS for seven years until his
death in November 2020. As well as Membership VP for PSARA, she serves as the surrogate
grandmother or “auntie” for the baby of a low-income immigrant family. “It was the height of
the pandemic and Tony was gone. I didn’t have anything to do and they needed child care so
why not help a family in need? After all, I was a single mom for all those years so I understand
some of the struggles that young families go through. It just seemed to make sense and indeed
it has brought happiness and purpose to my life once again.”

After 25 years in Seattle, Lisa and her husband retired to the North Olympic Peninsula in 2016.  Her activism began by volunteering with the Seattle Sierra Club. While working for Washington Community Action Network on healthcare and social justice issues, she learned about PSARA and became a member.  She is now part of a small but mighty Clallam County/PSARA team working to grow support on the Peninsula. She is also, in orca costume, a part of the North Olympic Orca Pod educating the public about our Southern Resident orca.