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Mara has spent nearly 30 years working in and with nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, and for-profit social ventures. Throughout her career, she has moved between sectors in various management and consulting roles, titrating between work in the trenches of building social-impact companies and organizations and supporting students and entrepreneurs as they navigate the opportunities and challenges of building ventures that prioritize people and the planet just as much as profits.

Mara has started and run two social-impact companies, including Boundless Landscapes, a public benefit corporation. She has also served as the executive director of two nonprofit organizations, one in Colorado and one in New York City. In addition, she has funded, educated, evaluated, and supported aspiring impact-oriented entrepreneurs as the Director of Social Entrepreneurship at the NYU Stern School of Business, as a mentor with Watson Institute, as a Social Venture Fellow with Blue Ridge Foundation, and on the selection committees for the NYU Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship, Echoing Green, and Root Cause’s Social Innovation Forum. Mara has also served as a consultant providing growth strategy, business planning, and marketing support to values-aligned businesses and nonprofits. Her work has always been deeply grounded in positive social and environmental impact and her areas of focus have included education, sustainability, and community resilience.

Mara holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MA in Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and a BA in Religious Studies from Macalester College.