Mary Celeste

Judge Mary A. Celeste (ret.) sat on the Denver County Court bench 2000-2015. She was the Presiding Judge 2009-10 and the co-founder of the Denver County Court Sobriety Court. She is currently a law school professor teaching Marijuana and the Law at California Western School of Law and at the Florida Gulf Coast University Fall 2023. She is considered a national content expert and speaker on the topic of cannabis and the law. She recently coordinated the successful National Interdisciplinary Cannabis Symposium 2022. She is a former board member of the IALGBT+ Judges’ Association and member of the Judicial Advisory Board for the Foundation for the Advancement of Alcohol Responsibility (FAAR); Faculty for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) and the National Judicial College (NJC). She has also served as the past chair of ABA National Conference of Specialized Court Judges; the President of the American Judge’s Association and the Colorado Women’s Bar Association Foundation, and, as a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Judicial Outreach Liaison. She has written many articles and is a national expert and speaker on the topics of cannabis, marijuana, marijuana and drug impaired driving, drugged driving, and cannabis and specialty courts.