Mary brings over 25 years of experience from the profit and not-for-profit sectors. Her substantive expertise is in strategy, civic/community engagement, program development, fundraising, communications, and collaborative initiatives. Central to all her work is a commitment to equity, authentic relationships, the strategic value of proximity, and addressing the intersectionality of our most significant challenges. She is a powerful communicator across a broad range of stakeholders.
Most recently Mary served as Senior Executive Director of the Chicagoland YMCA where she developed and led strategic growth and community impact initiatives across the association while providing direct oversight of three Community Hubs. Before joining the YMCA, Mary served as Policy Director at Common Cause Illinois, where she worked to engage people not typically around the policy table and advocacy efforts, leading their state and local policy initiatives. Prior to that, she served as the inaugural executive director of Strides for Peace, whose mission is to create a Chicago where all can thrive, free from the fear of gun violence, by increasing the collective impact of community organizations and providing new pathways for people across sectors to get involved.
Before joining Strides, Mary served as Director of Strategy and Development for BUILD, a Chicago gang intervention, violence prevention, and youth development organization where she oversaw fundraising, external relations, and program development during a critical time of transition. Her other work includes leadership and consulting roles in health care policy and administration, early education, inclusive economic development, her own social enterprise, Granola for Good.
She holds an M.S. from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice and Service with a certificate in Health Administration and Policy, and a B.A. in Religious Studies and Psychology from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Distinction. She enjoys traveling to England where her husband’s family lives and is a proud mother of two, humble volunteer, cat whisperer, mountain lover and avid beer aficionado.