Mary E. Dolan

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Mary co-founded Friends of the FDR Memorial in 2019 and has served as Executive Director since that time, managing all aspects of the organization, including financial, fundraising, programmatic, communications, and personnel operations. She has secured over $2 million in funding for the FDR Committee from foundation, individual, and government sources and has served as Project Director for major initiatives, including the commemorative events marking the 25th anniversary of the FDR Memorial in 2022 and a 2023 national teacher training workshop funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Mary was a member of the senior leadership team at the National Organization on Disability (NOD) from 1995 to 2011, where she was a key staff member on the campaign to add the statue of FDR in a wheelchair to the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC. She also served as Director of the World Committee on Disability, executing all aspects of the FDR International Disability Award with presentations to heads of state at the United Nations for ten years. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, she was part of the leadership team that developed a plan to improve emergency preparedness for people with disabilities, which was presented to then Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, and she also served as a lobbyist for NOD to secure funding for programs supporting wounded warriors returning to work.

From 2007 to 2011, Mary was a member of the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin convened by the Ford Foundation and later the Aspen Institute, and she was a co-contributor to the 2009 Ford Foundation-funded paper titled “US Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange: Understanding the Impact 40 Years Later.” In 2009, she testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment at a hearing on efforts to address the ongoing impact of dioxin in Vietnam.

Mid-career, Mary earned a Master of Arts in Education and served as a classroom teacher for students with disabilities in Washington, DC schools from 2013 to 2018, and she continues to hold K–12 teaching licensure with a specialization in Social Studies.

At the start of her career, she worked on Capitol Hill for her hometown member of Congress, Representative Norman F. Lent of New York.

Mary holds a Master of Arts in Education from The George Washington University School of Education and Human Development, a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Denver Korbel School of International Service, and a Bachelor of Arts from American University School of International Service.