Born September 18, 1975, in Durham, NC, to a botanist and a social worker, Mary spent much of her childhood trading homemade sprouted wheat sandwiches for bologna on Wonder and whining about having to look at nature. By the time high school came around, she was out in Duke Forest doing research for her father and begging her mom to bake bread. A year into her nursing degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro she learned that the nursing department did not encourage its students to study abroad. She immediately changed majors and in 1997 she received her BA in German Studies (after studying in both Finland and Germany).
Mary came to Counter Culture in 2000 to work in our very busy Coffee Traffic department. She left for a time to manage a coffee shop but returned in 2003 to her current position in Customer Relations, where she does everything from customer training to equipment repair and coffee therapy. Previous careers include; English as a Second Language teacher, research assistant for the National Park Service, general manager of a university bookstore, and waitress. Her interests include hiking, backpacking, reading, beer gardens, and sporting wool sweaters in the middle of summer.
