She is a former middle school English language arts and social studies teacher. In 2007 and 2009 Mary co-directed, with Susan Shillinglaw, the NEH Summer Institute John Steinbeck: "Voice of A Region, Voice for America." She is the author of Writers at Play: Making the Space for Adolescents to Balance Imagination and Craft (Heinemann, 2009) and co-author (with Eija Rougle) of Building Literacy Through Classroom Discussion (Scholastic, 2005).