Since 2002, Mary has been a coach in Teaching for Understanding, Differentiating Instruction, and Coach Development, and now instructs.  An experienced teacher, Mary is an educational consultant and past president of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). Until recently, she served as the Director of Social Studies (K-12) and Director of Professional Development in the Parkway district of St. Louis County, MO.

Mary was part of the Task Force of the NCSS that produced the publication, Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, authored content for a 32 set online professional development library and facilitated 8 video workshops based on the standards and the library for NCSS, WGBH, and Annenberg/CPB. In addition to her coaching, she has hosted face-to-face workshops in the U.S. and abroad, facilitated at Project Zero's Summer Institutes, and co-facilitated a workshop at the HGSE with Stone Wiske entitled, "Educating for Democracy: Building Civic Competence".  Mary received her M.A. in Secondary Education from Washington University, and her Ph.D in Curriculum and Instruction from St. Louis University.