M.J. Menendez is the National Opioid, Heroin and Fentanyl Efforts Coordinator for the U.S. Department of Justice's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). She has been on detail to the OCDETF Executive Office since May 2015, on loan from the District of Colorado where she serves an Assistant United States Attorney in the Department of Justice. Menendez has been a prosecutor for 19 years, and she also served as a District Court Judge in Jefferson County, Colorado, for three years. Her passion for advocacy caused her to step down from the bench and return to a leadership role in whole-of-government, public health and public safety collaborations in the fight against the opioid epidemic.