Mary has over 15 years practice experience working in the domestic abuse sector. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Refuge4Pets, a charity providing a specialist animal fostering service to victim-survivors of domestic abuse. The charity is one of the Links Group specialist animal fostering services.

Mary is an academic researcher with a specialism in the dynamics and implications of animal abuse in the context of domestic abuse. In 2021 she completed her PhD in the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at the University of Bristol titled Animal Abuse as a Strategy of Coercive Control.

Mary has held a number of Research Associate and Research Fellow posts at the Universities of Bristol and Birmingham in the areas of gender-based violence and social work.