Mara is an award-winning nonprofit executive who translates ideas into strategies and achieves results. Throughout her 25-year career, she’s worked with a range of organizations including associations, theaters, universities, and health care delivery. She is also the Founder and Principal of Marlando, LLC a boutique brand communications agency.

Growing up in a small Indiana town, she learned the importance of community service from an early age. Both of her parents served on multiple boards and spent countless hours volunteering for the local theater, their church, YWCA, food pantry, and other organizations. These experiences and lessons profoundly impacted her decision to dedicate her life to making the world a better place through a career focused on the nonprofit sector. And in this accelerated digital world, she wants to instill those same values through community service in her sons who are 11 and 13.

Mara is a proud Butler University alumna graduating with high honors for both her B.S. in Arts Administration and an MBA in Marketing.

She is a soccer mom, active PTA member, avid traveler, and theater nerd. She and her husband, sons, and Cavachon live in Alexandria, Virginia.