Mary Beth has been sober since 1994, after spending many years as an IV meth addict. She also is in recovery from abuse, trauma, self-harm, ptsd, and anxiety. Her history and her recovery are chronicled in her memoir From Junkie to Judge: One Woman’s Triumph Over Trauma and Addiction. In August 2020, Mary Beth had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, I Beat Addiction without God, where she described combining ideas from several secular programs to create a robust recovery foundation.
Mary Beth is a Director, Secretary, and Founding Investor for She Recovers Foundation. She also is a Director for LifeRing Secular Recovery. She also develops relationships with other organizations, such as Women for Sobriety. She regularly speaks on behalf of these organizations and about multiple and secular paths to recovery.
Professionally, 6 years into her recovery, Mary Beth attended Berkeley Law. She worked at a large firm, then litigated class actions for the federal government. In 2014 she was appointed a federal Administrative Law Judge from which position she retired early in 2020.