Mary has over 20 years’ teaching experience in two urban integrated comprehensive colleges in Derry and Belfast and has been part of the development of integrated education in Northern Ireland since its early days. Mary spent twelve years in senior leadership in Malone College, Belfast, a multi-cultural post-primary school, where she led on whole-school strategic improvement work in teaching and learning and professional development.

In 2014 Mary took up post with the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI), working as an inspector of primary and post-primary provision across Northern Ireland. She was a member of the core team which developed the current Inspection and Self-evaluation Framework for Post-primary Schools (ISEF). Mary joined the Education Authority (EA) in July 2018 as one of three Heads of School Improvement for Post-primary and Special Education, leading the service for Locality East.

Mary has been a guest lecturer on the Queen’s University PGCE and is a member of the PGCE Stakeholder Forum. She is an Associate of the Association of Education Advisers, a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and a co-founder and strategic lead of @WomenEdNI, part of the increasingly influential global professional network @WomenEd.