Marja Lust joined the Amsterdam Police Department in October 2004 as a dispatcher. After graduating magna cum laude in 1995 from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota (USA) with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, she completed her Master’s degree in Business Administration only two years later. Currently, Marja works as a criminal investigator for the Amsterdam Cold Case team in the rank of Lieutenant after completing a second Master’s degree in Criminal Investigation in September 2014.

Marja is an active member of the Amsterdam LGBT police network Roze In Blauw (i.e. Pink In Blue), an award winning team for its trendsetting activities and tactics on policing the Amsterdam LGBT community. As such, she represents Pink In Blue at many public speaking occasions. Marja is also one of five people on the Pink In Blue team who answer the 24-hour police hotline that is available to the Dutch LGBT community to report hate-related crimes.

For Pink In Blue The Netherlands, the national umbrella organization for the various local Pink In Blue chapters, Marja’s area of responsibility is International Relations.

In August of 2016 Marja was the conference director of the ‘1st World LGBT Conference for Criminal Justice Professionals’ that was held in Amsterdam during Europride week. This first of a kind event welcomed over 250 participants from 26 countries all over the world.

In February of 2018 Marja accepted the position of Ambassador for International Relations and Women’s Affairs on the Executive Committee of the European LGBT Police Association (EGPA). One year later (March 2019) she was elected to be the EGPA’s vice president.
Photo (c) Pieter Dammen Photography