Former Cannabis Regulator Moves to City Boards

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu tapped former State House aide and state cannabis regulator AVA CALLENDER CONCEPCION as executive director of the Mayor's Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing as well as chair of both the Boston Licensing Board and Boston Cannabis Board. Most recently, Concepcion was a commissioner on Boston's Licensing Board. Before that, she was a member of the Cannabis Control Commission – where she also had a brief stint as acting chair amid controversy over then-CCC Chairwoman Shannon O'Brien's employment – until she resigned in November 2025. From 2019 to 2020, Concepcion was director of government affairs for the Suffolk County district attorney's office. And she has State House experience: from 2016 to 2019 she was counsel to Sen. William Brownsberger, then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Ava Callender Concepcion has spent her career connecting residents to economic opportunity and leading important regulatory agencies. Ava knows our neighborhoods inside and out, and understands that our work must center the people and businesses that anchor our communities," Wu said in a statement. Concepcion starts Nov. 4 and succeeds KATHLEEN JOYCE.