Mara spent her 18-year legal career at the international law firm of White & Case LLP, where she was Counsel to the Firm and practiced employment law. At White & Case, Mara was actively involved in recruiting, Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity programs, and was a member of the firm’s Women Lawyers’ Network Committee.

Before and after White & Case LLP, Mara spent nearly six years working for two of the four Big 4 public accounting firms in various business capacities. Most recently, she was with Deloitte Services LP serving as Chief of Staff to the National Director of Human Resources and Chief Operating Officer for the Retention and Advancement of Women.

Mara also started her own organization, Second Shift, in 1998 in her hometown of Chappaqua, New York, which is now operating as Second Shift LLC. She formed a Southern Westchester County chapter in June 2003 and a chapter for moms seeking re-entry into the workforce in January 2007. Second Shift has over 600 participants who are career women representing all industries with children of all ages. The organization sponsors exciting educational and networking events with guest speakers several times a year. Its mission is to provide a forum for career women who devote themselves to their professions and the care of their families and the employers who employ. The forum provides a resource for networking, education, socializing and sharing ideas and strategies toward finding and maintaining a balance between family and work obligations.

Second Shift’s members also donate their time, money and talent to several community-based organizations through the organization’s community outreach efforts.

Second Shift’s guest speakers and events have included Hillary Rodham Clinton (when she was First Lady), a family communications specialist, medical and financial planning, fitness, technology and stress, a sex therapist, mental and physical self-defense, celebrity authors, and publishers and television journalists, individualized psychological profiles, a fashion show with Diane von Furstenberg, a self promotion expert, a leadership expert and work-life experts, among others.

Second Shift has been in several national and local publications and broadcasts including, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Working Mother Magazine, The Journal News, The Scarsdale Inquirer, Westchester Parent, Westchester Family, InTown Magazine, Inside Chappaqua, NCCTV's Yada Yada Yada, and XM Satellite Radio with Lisa Belkin.

Mara was graduated from Muhlenberg College with a BA in Industrial and Organizational Behavior and she received her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. She resides in Chappaqua, New York with her husband, Richard, and their two sons, Gabriel and Noah.