Dot attorney takes public safety seat on cannabis boardPosted by On

Last month, Attorney General Maura Healey tapped Ava Callender Concepcion, a Dorchester attorney, to fill the vacant public safety seat on the state’s Cannabis Control Commission. 

Concepcion, a self-described “Mattapan girl” who grew up near the Mattapan/Dorchester border, now lives in Uphams Corner with her husband and 14 month-year-old child. In an interview with the Reporter, she described how being a lifelong Boston resident compelled her to pursue a career rooted in social justice and advocate for change at the local level.

Concepcion’s early years were “a huge part of why I ended up getting a degree in criminology and becoming a lawyer,” she explained.

“In the early 90s there was a really bad increase in crime in my area, on my street. As a kid I remember someone being a victim of homicide right outside my door and it being taped off,” she said.

“This still kind of happens now, but shootings were being masked by fireworks, so you wouldn’t know if it was a firework going off or a gun going off,” she said. “But it did boost my interest and I started then getting more socially active and more politically active and started to look into a career in public safety…I wanted to know more about it, and I wanted to know what I could do to effect change in my area.”

Those first steps down the criminal justice path eventually led Concepcion to…

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Last month, Attorney General Maura Healey tapped Ava Callender Concepcion, a Dorchester attorney, to fill the vacant public safety seat on the state’s Cannabis Control Commission. 

Concepcion, a self-described “Mattapan girl” who grew up near the Mattapan/Dorchester border, now lives in Uphams Corner with her husband and 14 month-year-old child. In an interview with the Reporter, she described how being a lifelong Boston resident compelled her to pursue a career rooted in social justice and advocate for change at the local level.

Concepcion’s early years were “a huge part of why I ended up getting a degree in criminology and becoming a lawyer,” she explained.

“In the early 90s there was a really bad increase in crime in my area, on my street. As a kid I remember someone being a victim of homicide right outside my door and it being taped off,” she said.

“This still kind of happens now, but shootings were being masked by fireworks, so you wouldn’t know if it was a firework going off or a gun going off,” she said. “But it did boost my interest and I started then getting more socially active and more politically active and started to look into a career in public safety…I wanted to know more about it, and I wanted to know what I could do to effect change in my area.”

Those first steps down the criminal justice path eventually led Concepcion to…



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