MASC/MASS 2018: Speakers - Andrea Cabral

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Former Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety and Sheriff of Suffolk County; CEO, Ascend

Andrea J. Cabral is the CEO of Ascend, an adult use cannabis company based in MA. Her leadership in Ascend follows a 28-year career in government and public service. Most recently, she served as the Commonwealth’s Executive Secretary of Public Safety in the Administration of Governor Deval Patrick where she oversaw 14 statewide public safety agencies, including the Massachusetts State Police, the Department of Correction, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, the Parole Board and the Massachusetts National Guard. From 2003 to 2013, she was the twice-elected Sheriff of Suffolk County and the first female sheriff in Massachusetts’ history.

As an Assistant District Attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office from 1993 to 2002, Ms. Cabral was Chief of Suffolk County’s first major felony Domestic Violence Unit, Senior Prosecutor for all civil rights cases and Chief of District Court and Community Prosecutions. She authored the state’s first continuing legal education manual on restraining orders and is also a former Assistant Attorney General and Assistant District Attorney in the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.

Ms. Cabral is an Eisenhower Fellow and served for 3 years as one of 18 national experts appointed to the Science Advisory Board (SAB) by United States Attorney General Eric Holder. She is a former member of the Advisory Board of the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy and the Governing Board of the Mass Mentoring Partnership and currently sits on the Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly Board of Editors. In 2017, she was appointed by Attorney General Maura Healey to the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission’s Cannabis Advisory Board. Ms. Cabral also provides weekly commentary and legal analysis on WGBH Boston Public Radio.

She is a graduate of Boston College and Suffolk University Law School.

Ms. Cabral is an Eisenhower Fellow and served as one of 18 national experts appointed to the Science Advisory Board (SAB) by United States Attorney General Eric Holder. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy, the Editorial Board of Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly and the Governing Board of the Mass Mentoring Partnership.

Ms. Cabral is the co-host of BPR Weekend and a weekly contributor on the Jim and Margery Show.

She is a graduate of Boston College and Suffolk University Law School.