Susan Blanco, COBALT Committee Co-Chair/Whisperer is the Chief Judge of the 8th Judicial District and was appointed by Governor Hickenlooper in January 2017. She has presided over criminal, civil, probate, domestic relations, and terminations and adoptions. Prior to the bench, she served as a Deputy District Attorney followed by over a decade in private practice focusing on criminal defense, juvenile delinquency, dependency and neglect, and municipal prosecution.
Chief Judge Blanco graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Colorado State University in 2000 and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Colorado School of Law in 2003. Her engagement of the community to collaborate on projects with the Judicial Branch include the development of the first Competency Court in Colorado and a Latinx task force focused on improving access to justice for minority populations. Currently she serves on the Chief Judge's Council, the Colorado Access to Justice Commission, the CBA Criminal Law Executive Council, the CWBA Board of Directors, the Colorado Bar Association Leadership Training planning committee, the Colorado Diverse Attorney Community Circle planning committee, and the CWBA DEI pipeline aimed at teaching children about legal professions.
Aaron Thompson, COBALT Committee Co-Chair/Whisperer is the General Counsel for Denver Public Schools with a practice centered on employment, labor, contract, and school law matters. Previously, Mr. Thompson was a member of Hall & Evans’ employment and public entities group representing counties, municipalities, school districts, and state agencies in matters concerning sovereign immunity, federal civil rights defense, and employment issues. Mr. Thompson also represented private employers in matters that involve Equal Opportunity and Discrimination laws including ADA, ADEA, Title VII, and FMLA and a host of other civil litigation matters.
While attending the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Mr. Thompson was a Charles F. Brannan Scholar, received a Clinical Practice Award, and was a Founding Member, Articles Editor, and Diversity Editor of the DU Criminal Law Review. He also served as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Nancy Lichtenstein with the Colorado Court of Appeals and as a Judicial Fellow for the Honorable Brian D. Boatright with the Colorado Supreme Court. Mr. Thompson is also a member of the Colorado High School Mock Trial Board and was a member of the 2020 COBALT class.
Mariana Vielma, COBALT Committee Co-Chair/Whisperer is a judge of the Adams County Court in Colorado. She assumed office on July 17, 2020. She is a native of Denver and earned her J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law and her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at El Paso. Prior to becoming a magistrate, she was an Assistant County Attorney and a Sr. Deputy District Attorney in the 17th Judicial District.
Angela Vichick is a partner in the firm’s Litigation practice group. Angela represents individual and institutional clients in complex civil disputes. Her practice focuses on business and real estate litigation, including matters involving business tort, contract, civil theft, derivative, fiduciary, fraud, fraudulent/preferential transfer, interpleader, probate, receivership, and quiet title and foreclosure claims. In addition to being a trial lawyer, Angela advises clients regarding appellate matters before the Colorado Court of Appeals, Colorado Supreme Court, and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Angela leads Womble Bond Dickinson's in-house trial advocacy program as well as the firm’s Real Estate and Construction Litigation Team. She also serves on the firm’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee. Angela is President of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association Foundation and Vice Chair of the Colorado Bar Association’s Business Law Section Executive Council.
Passionate about education, housing stability, and small business issues, Angela is a frequent CLE presenter and guest lecturer on those topics, regularly provides related pro bono services. She is also a dedicated high school mock trial coach and a mentor to students pursuing careers in law. Angela is an avid reader, a beginner cellist, and enjoys true crime podcasts.
Charlie Willman was admitted to the practice of law in Colorado and the U.S. District Court since October of 1975. Charlie has been in private practice in Glenwood Springs since May of 1976. In 1980, Charlie was appointed as the first attorney judge when Glenwood Springs' Municipal Court became a Court of Record. He served in that capacity for six months and became City Attorney in June of 1980 and served as City Attorney until October of 1984. Charlie continued his private practice in Glenwood Springs and is now mostly retired. In 1995, Charlie also began to provide mediation services and has been a contractor with the State of Colorado Office of Dispute Resolution in 2017 and now his primary focus is providing mediation services.
Charlie served on various non profit boards in the Glenwood Springs Community, often as the chair of those boards. In 2008 Charlie became a member of the Glenwood Springs Downtown Development authority and served as its chair until 2017. In 2019 Charlie was elected to the Glenwood Springs City Council and served as Mayor Pro Tem from 2021 to 2023.
Charlie was selected as the Senior Vice President of the CBA and began that role in July of 2023. Charlie is now the President Elect of the CBA and will become the CBA President in July of 2025. Charlie was recently appointed as the CBA representative to the Board of the newly former Equal Justice Authority which Board is charged with distributing funds, collected from court filing fees, to qualified non-profit legal service organizations.
Geraldo Parrilla hails from New Haven, CT, where he graduated from Quinnipiac University School of Law in 2019. After clerking for two years in Connecticut State and Federal court, he moved to Denver in 2021 to work as an associate at a litigation boutique, focusing his practice on medical malpractice defense in the Mountain West region. In June 2023, Geraldo joined Hall & Evans as an associate, where he handles civil litigation matters involving healthcare, premises liability, products liability, and general liability defense. Outside of his practice, Geraldo serves as co-chair of the Business Development Committee of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association. He also volunteers as a mock trial coach at Arrupe Jesuit High School and a student mentor for Law School Yes We Can. He is passionate about equal access to justice and student mentorship in underserved communities; and he hopes to continue finding ways to serve marginalized groups in Denver metro and beyond. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, live music, fashion, camping, cycling, and rooting for all the inferior New York sports teams.
Joscelyn Shively received her law degree in 2011 at Thomas M. Cooley Law School and her undergraduate degree at University of South Florida in 2006. During law school, she served as a clerk to the Honorable Judge Richard Suhrheinrich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. After graduating, she served for nearly five years as a Deputy District Attorney in the Nineteenth Judicial District Attorney's Office in Northern Colorado where she worked in the Special Victims Unit. She prosecuted crimes against children and special victims, as well as homicides and other serious and violent crimes. From there she worked as a Senior Deputy District Attorney in the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office,
where she served the community for seven years. She spent most of her time prosecuting sexual offenses and other abuses of children in both the Special Victims Unit and Juvenile Unit. She also served as the Special Prosecutor at the Ralston House Child Advocacy Center where she assisted in the early stages of child abuse investigations to ensure more successful prosecutions. She has a passion for protecting children from all forms of abuse and volunteers her time to aid in efforts to stop abuse. She spends her free time with her husband and toddler in outdoor adventure and sports of all kinds, something she has been actively engaged in since she was a child. When she’s not testing her limits on the latest extreme outdoor challenge, you can find her travelling the world and seeking out new culinary finds.
Joshua Nowak received his law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 2016, as well as a certificate in Constitutional Rights and Remedies. Joshua worked in a variety of settings during law school including the Law Office of Lyndsey Richard, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as the Greeley, Boulder, and Denver Offices of the Colorado State Public Defender. Upon graduation, Joshua began his career with the Brighton Office of the Colorado State Public Defender. Following that, Joshua was in private practice with the law offices of McDermott, Stuart, and Ward LLP. Joshua is now a County Court Judge in Adams County.
Niceta Bradburn Working with children takes special skill and sensitivity, two things that Niceta Bradburn possesses in abundance. As a CASA Barry Glasgow Award-winner for GAL (Guardian Ad Litem) of the Year, Attorney Bradburn is known for her advocacy for children in the court system. For context, a Guardian Ad Litem is a court-appointed figure who represents the legal interests of the child exclusively. GALs are often appointed in complex disputes between parents, and they specialize in ensuring that a child’s voice is heard—especially when that child lacks the knowledge to voice their needs on their own.
Her current practice at The Harris Law Firm focuses on divorce, parental rights allocation, and child advocacy, among other concerns. As a result, Ms. Bradburn is deeply experienced in Colorado law pertaining to children, which is particularly relevant to modern family law. She has also worked as a Child/Family Investigator for the court—this means that she is professionally skilled at uncovering ever factor and detail relevant to a child’s needs in a family situation. She even has spent her time volunteering for adjudicated children, working as a therapist in a wilderness camp designed for juveniles in the system.
Ms. Bradburn received her Bachelor’s from the University of Dayton, where she played basketball, volleyball, and ran cross-country. She then moved to Colorado to earn her Juris Doctorate from Sturm College at the University of Denver. During her time at law school, she interned for the Attorney General; in addition, she was a law clerk for Judge Rappaport, familiarizing herself with the processes and practices of the court system. In this time, she also completed her clinic work with the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center, establishing her focus on children early on.
Toni Wehman is currently the Chief District Attorney of Policy and Public Affairs for the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office – Adams/Broomfield Counties where she works on community initiatives involving criminal justice reform. Previously, she had worked for the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office from 2007 until 2010 so this is her second time around with the office. Before going back into criminal justice, Toni was an education lawyer and worked for Denver Public Schools for 5 years in their General Counsel’s office and 5 years for Caplan & Earnest, LLC representing school districts and hospitals throughout Colorado. After graduating from CU-Boulder Law School in 2006, she clerked for former Chief Justice Nancy Rice. Toni is a member of the Colorado Bar Association, Adams Broomfield Bar Association, HS Mock Trial, and participated in COBALT 2011, the Colorado Bar Association's Leadership Training. She also has a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Minnesota and an undergraduate degree in Economics but she really learned most of what she needed to know about life from her early years as a 4-Her.