Marielsa A. Bernard

A lifelong resident of Maryland, Marielsa Althea Bernard was a Senior Judge of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland (2002-2017) and the first judge of Hispanic descent in the history of Montgomery County. She was appointed as an Associate Judge of the District Court of Maryland’s Sixth District (Montgomery County) in September 1998 and served there until 2002, when she was elevated to the Circuit Court. She was an attorney in general practice for more than 17 years, focusing on criminal, civil, immigration, and family law.

Bernard was born in Washington, D.C., and is of Peruvian and Portuguese descent. She attended Thomas S. Wootton High School, in Rockville, Maryland, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Loyola College (1977), and earned a Juris Doctor from Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America (1980). She was admitted to the bar in both Maryland and the District of Columbia in 1981.

Bernard was one of the founding members of the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association (MHBA) and served as its second president. During her tenure, she initiated and organized a program of pro bono fairs that won the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA) People's Pro Bono Award in addition to the MSBA Best Service to the Public Award. She continued to serve on MHBA's Board for many years.

Following the tragic death of her daughter Katheryn (Kate) in December 2014 from an opiate overdose, Bernard reached out to other mothers who had suffered a similar loss and started a weekly support group, S.O.U.L. (Surviving Our Ultimate Loss). In 2016, Bernard planned the first Montgomery County International Overdose Awareness Day "Ceremony of Remembrance," which was sponsored initially by S.O.U.L. This annual event grew to include the co-sponsorship of both the Montgomery County Government and the Montgomery County Circuit Court Adult Drug Court.

Her long history of leadership on behalf of women and girls includes serving for three years as the initial Chair of the Montgomery County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council (DVCC), where, among other programs, she started "Choose Respect Montgomery," a teen dating violence educational awareness project that has grown to include presentations in middle and high schools as well as an annual conference. She also started a fatherhood initiative that featured a county-wide parenting conference for fathers. Bernard also chaired the Montgomery County Steering Committee of the 2014 Interfaith Domestic Violence Initiative through the Maryland Governor's Office of Community Initiatives.

She was a member of the Hispanic/Latino Advisory Group to the Montgomery County Executive and past Vice-President of the Hispanic Alliance. She did extensive pro bono work for the East Takoma Park Silver Spring Community Center, the Spanish Catholic Center, and St. Camillus Parish. Bernard initiated and has spent almost 20 years with the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) Storybook Project in the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, helping incarcerated mothers read and record stories for their children to maintain the bond between mother and child until the family can be reunited.

Bernard has held leadership positions with the Maryland State Bar Association, the Chair of the Hispanic-Latino Lawyers Committee, and a two-year stint as Co-Chair of the MSBA Leadership Academy. A member of the Montgomery County Bar Association, the National Association of Women Judges, and the Women's Bar Association of Montgomery County, she initiated the Latina Youth Empowerment Conference and the Take-Your-Daughter-to-Work-Day Program, sponsoring "at-risk" high school students. Bernard is a Fellow of both the Maryland State Bar and the Montgomery County Bar Foundations. She served on the Public Trust and Confidence in the Maryland Judicial System Committee, the Business and Technology Task Force, and the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Bias. Bernard has had a Martindale-Hubbell rating of AV Preeminent Jurist for many years.

Her leadership and dedication to her work were recognized with various awards and honors, including receiving the Daily Record Leadership in the Law Award and recognition as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women.

"We often hear rhetoric about children being our most precious resource, but unfortunately, those words are all too often empty. We cannot continue to put the needs of our children last on our list of priorities."