Joyce Mojonnier

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Joyce “Sunny” Mojonnier is an American politician from California. A Republican, she served in the California State Assembly representing the 75th District from December 1982 to November 1990, four terms. She was the 30th woman elected to the California Legislature. She was born on February 17, 1943, in Detroit, Michigan, and has four children; she was married to F. Erwin Mojonnier (they later separated).

While in the Assembly, Mojonnier served on many committees, including Rules, Ways and Means, Judiciary, Governmental Organizations, Education (and the Subcommittee on Education Reform), Labor, Economic Development & New Technologies, and the Subcommittee on Arts & Athletics. She chaired the Task Force on Child Abuse and the Judicial System, helped create it, and chaired the Joint Committee on Surrogate Parenting. She was the vice chair of the Joint Committee on the 1992 Quincentennial and served on the Select Committee on Genetic Diseases. She also participated in groups with the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Western Legislative Conference. She helped pass mental health legislation to improve patient care.

In 1983, while still in office, she founded Capitol Network, a nonpartisan networking group for women in the Capitol. After leaving the Assembly, she was appointed in 1992 by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown to the California Medical Assistance Commission, which oversees Medi-Cal contracts.

In 2014, Mojonnier started the nonpartisan foundation Women In California Politics (WICP) to help preserve the history of women who served in the California Legislature. She served as CEO and led the Centennial Celebration in 2018 for 100 years of women in the state legislature. In late 2020, she stepped down as CEO and became Chair of the WICP Board. In August 2021, the WICP Museum opened in Sacramento, where Mojonnier worked as a curator and historian.