Elise Bean, Washington co-director of the Levin Center at Wayne Law, has been recognized as a leader on tax justice and is one of five women celebrated by Global Witness for standing up for transparency and accountability in their fields.

The recognition was part of International Women's Day on March 8.

For 29 years, Bean worked for former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In 2003, Levin appointed her as staff director and chief counsel of the committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which he then chaired. During her tenure on the subcommittee, Bean supported Levin-led investigations into a host of tax issues, including multinational corporate tax avoidance by Apple, Caterpillar and Microsoft, and hidden offshore bank accounts at Credit Suisse and UBS which knowingly helped their U.S. clients use those accounts to evade U.S. taxes. She's also twice been named by the International Tax Review to the Global Tax 50, a list of "who's who" in the tax world.

The Levin Center at Wayne Law was established in 2015 in honor of Levin's distinguished career in public service. In her capacity as Washington co-director of the center, Bean has been instrumental in the training of more than 145 congressional staffers on the art and practice of bipartisan oversight. She's also conducted legislative oversight trainings for parliamentary staff in Ukraine and the European Union.

Other women recognized by Global Witness include Jakeline Romero, human and indigenous rights activist in Colombia; Francisca Ramirez, environmental activist in Nicaragua; Mary Robinson, president of the Mary Robinson Climate Justice Foundation in Ireland; and the late Daphne Caruana Galizia, investigative journalist in Malta.

Bean graduated from Wesleyan University and earned her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.