CourtReps Realtime Institute Faculty

Mary Smith Agren, RPR, FAPR, CRI,
Certified Program Evaluator
SpeedBuilding Instructor

Mary attended Mile Hi College from 1970 to 1972. Mary’s certifications include: Certified Shorthand Reporter in Kansas and Colorado and a Registered Professional Reporter, Certified Reporting Instructor, and Certified Professional Evaluator.

In addition to the professional distinction of Fellow of the Academy of Professional Reporters (FAPR) in 1985, she has received the Colorado Court Reporters’ Distinguished Service Award in 1989, and NCRA’s Educator of the Year award in 1999. Mary became an RPR on May 2, 1981.

Mary’s teaching career has spanned from 1971 to the present, starting with being an instructor while attending Mile Hi College, assisting in the initiation and NCRA Approval of the court reporting department at Brown Mackie College, Salina, Kansas; then on to ownership of the Denver Academy of Court Reporting. For the past few years, she has enjoyed working with Jeniffer Aloysius as an online instructor, helping students from coast to coast and internationally to achieve their goals of becoming successful court reporters.

Mary’s career as a court reporter started as a freelance reporter in Salina, Kansas in 1973. Upon her return to Colorado in 1978, she joined the court officials in the Denver District Courts for the next four years, then joined the ranks of the freelance reporters once again for the next ten years. Opportunity to purchase a court reporting school and build it to being one of the top ten schools in the United States occupied the next 14 years. Upon selling the school in 2000, Mary returned to reporting, after an 11-year hiatus, to enjoy the challenge of freelance reporting and being a substitute reporter in the district courts of Colorado.

Mary has enjoyed the tremendous privileges, and attendant duties, of being a president of the Colorado Court Reporters Association, president of the National Court Reporters Association, and chair of the National Court Reporters Foundation. Her professional responsibilities in these organizations have allowed her to participate in the implementation of the RPR testing, the school approval program, and in the year of her presidency (1990-1991), the change of name and image from The National Shorthand Reporters Association to The National Court Reporters Association. She has represented NCRA in 48 of the 50 states; given seminars, and served on committees and boards, too numerous to mention, during her 20-plus years of service to the profession..

It has truly been a wonderful life!