Carol Melamed
Carol Melamed worked as a lawyer at The Washington Post newspaper from 1979 to 2006. For the last ten years of her tenure, she was Vice President Government Affairs. Her responsibilities included handling employment law matters, federal, state, and local legislative and regulatory matters affecting the business and editorial sides of the newspaper, as well as serving as the Post’s representative to local press associations and other organizations.
After retiring from the Post, Carol has focused on press-related organizations. She was President of the First Amendment Coalition (based in California) from 2014 to 2017 and remains a devoted board member. For many years she served as a trustee and is a past President of the Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia Press Foundation. She is also on the board of the Council for Court Excellence and the Embarcadero Foundation.
Carol has also focused on animal-related activities. She volunteered for 10 years at the Peninsula Humane Society (in Burlingame, CA), has volunteered for over 15 years at the Humane Rescue Alliance (in Washington, DC), and is a member of the Founder’s Council of Alaska Geographic. For over two years, she and her dog were a certified therapy team with National Capital Therapy Dogs, and before that, she was a volunteer for the Humane Society of the United States, working in animal shelters in Mississippi (after Hurricane Katrina) and Iowa (after the Cedar Rapids floods).
Carol joined The Post in 1979 as Assistant Counsel, became Associate Counsel the following year, and in 1996 was promoted to Vice President Government Affairs. Before joining The Post, she practiced law at the D.C. firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering from 1975 to 1979, and clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. for a year prior to that. She graduated from Brown University in 1967 and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a master’s degree in 1969 from Harvard University Graduate School of Education and a JD in 1974 from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.
Carol lives in Bethesda, MD with her husband, Doug. She has four daughters, three granddaughters, and five grandsons.