Mary’s first career was in ordained ministry. She worked initially as a hospital chaplain in Washington DC, then as an associate pastor in a St. Louis Lutheran Church during which she partnered with a pastor in Panama and raising funds to assist in a fair-trade coffee project with the indigenous Ngobe people. Her second career focused on conflict resolution and restorative justice with training in nonviolent communication, circle processes, mediation and restorative justice practices. She applied these processes as an outreach pastor with the St. Louis Mennonite Peace Center in their Community Mediation Program as well as community development initiatives in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood of St. Louis.

Mary gave up her call to ordination but continued in Community Mediation and Restorative Justice work, eventually directing the mediation program for the Mennonite Peace Center and co-leading an effort to advance the use of Restorative Justice practices in the St. Louis Area through the creation of a non-profit, St. Louis Area Council on Restorative Justice. Mary and her husband live in Sacramento, and have two grown children, both currently living in California.

• MA in Theology, Catholic University in Washington DC

• Masters in Divinity, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg