Mary holds a PhD (Social Anthropology), University of Cambridge, UK (1994) and a BA (Anthropology), University of Nairobi (1989). She is the Founder Director of the AIHD, and is currently serving as the Project Director of ARISE 2 (Accelerate Resilient, Innovate, and Sustainable Elimination of NTDs) project (October 2022 to December 2025). She is also a Principal Investigator on other projects including ADOPT, Microplanning for NTDs and the Peer-to-Peer Learning.
Before establishing the AIHD, she worked for the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), Population Council, and African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). She is an Executive Board Member of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) and a member of the Steering committee for NCDI Poverty Network. She chairs the Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilization Technical Working Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in the Ministry of Health (MoH) and holds a similar position for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Kenya.
Mary has published on gender, NCDs, NTDs, child health, gender-based violence (GBV), sexual and reproductive health, and poverty. She is an Adjunct Faculty Member of Strathmore University, Nairobi.