Mary Ann’s career has been shaped by 18 years spent at the Science Museum of Minnesota, establishing and running a center where teens develop and present informal science experiences to public audiences in the museum and in neighborhood settings. Her Master’s program field study took her to Northern Ireland to help establish museum-based youth programs. She completed a two-year rotation at the National Science Foundation as a program officer for the Informal Science Education program. She studied learning sciences at the University of Pittsburgh working on robotics, climate change, and arts based education studies with UPCLOSE. She led the education and learning research effort at Carnegie Museum of Natural History for five years focusing on teen programs, climate change education efforts, and object based learning. These experiences have led to her current research interest in the role that content-rich community resources can play in supporting community learning for people of all ages, and the ways community knowledge can inform the work of these same institutions. Mary Ann holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh (2016), an M.Ed. in Youth Development Leadership from the University of Minnesota (2007) and a B.A. from Bard College in New York (1986).