top of page

our founder.

celeste trusty

Celeste Trusty serves as founder and principal strategist for North Star Advocacy Strategies.  With more than a decade of experience in criminal legal reform advocacy, Celeste founded North Star Advocacy Strategies to support legal reform organizations and stakeholders navigate the complex legislative and clemency processes in Pennsylvania.  

​​

Ms. Trusty previously served as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons tasked with overseeing the Commonwealth’s clemency process and supporting the Wolf administration’s goals of an historic dedication to second chances.  Celeste also worked across several states to advocate reforms to overly-punitive sentencing policies as state legislative affairs director for FAMM,

​

and served as political director for a high-profile campaign for United States Senate in Pennsylvania. 

​

Ms. Trusty was appointed by Gov. Tom Wolf to serve on the Judicial Conduct Board of Pennsylvania in 2020, where she served until 2022.  Celeste is also a proud member of the Defender Association of Philadelphia’s Board of Directors,  Board of Trustees of the Federal Community Defender Office of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as well as the Boards of Prison Journalism Project and the Police Transparency Project.  City and State Pennsylvania highlighted Celeste Trusty as one of 40 in their 40s in 2024, 2024 Black Trailblazers,  2023 Law Power 100, and Power of Diversity: Black 100 list in both 2022 and 2023.

​

A proud former volunteer for the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, you can see Celeste in The Prosecution: Wrong Place, Wrong Time episode of The Innocence Files on Netflix, which details the harrowing and powerful story of Chester Hollman’s 28 year fight for freedom from a wrongful conviction.

 

Celeste is dedicated to the liberation of people impacted by the criminal legal system, and is so grateful for the opportunity to work closely with so many incredible organizations, lawmakers, and community members to transform our system into one that more closely resembles justice.

bottom of page