As the director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, Karen O’Keefe manages grassroots and direct lobbying efforts in state legislatures for the nation’s largest cannabis policy reform organization.

Karen is an attorney who has been with MPP since 2003 and is perhaps the foremost expert on state cannabis policies. Working closely with local advocates and lawmakers, her team played a leading role in the advocacy campaigns that resulted in the first two legalization laws to pass through state legislatures, in Vermont and Illinois. Her team has also played central roles in Connecticut’s and Maryland’s successful legalization efforts and the lobbying campaigns that resulted in more than a dozen medical marijuana and decriminalization laws.