Experience

Hillman Family Foundations

• United States
• Philanthropic Fundraising Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Grants and Finance Analyst

  • Feb 2022 - Present



Allies for Children

• United States
• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Research and Operations Manager

  • Sep 2013 - Feb 2022

  I serve as the research and operations manager at Allies for Children, a nonpartisan nonprofit that serves as a bold voice for policy and practice changes that improve the lives of children in Allegheny County. I develop and implement a research agenda for the organization. I conduct research to determine what policy changes are needed to address a problem, such as child hunger and public school funding. After analyzing the issue, I assist in convening partners to determine potential solutions. As a project manager for our school transportation work, school breakfast work, the Crossing Guards Study, and other areas, I help form a collaboration among diverse stakeholders, facilitated focus groups and ensured the use of qualitative and quantitative research in decision making. Over the last five years, I have managed the first and only county-wide study on school breakfast participation in Allegheny County. The completion of this annual report resulted in a strong advocacy tool used to discuss different opportunities for school districts as well as advocate for additional funding for the school breakfast program. PDE is working to use this report as a model for future statewide data analysis. As the project manager of this work, I facilitated conversations with school districts to implement best practices and serve on the statewide breakfast task force. I have also co-authored and continue to co-manage work related to school transportation and career and technical education among others. Due to the small size of our organization I am able to learn new skills each and every day, that's where the operations manager part comes into play. I work with our Executive Director to manage our internal processes, invoice system and payroll, accounting, grant reporting, and other internal areas. Since we are a newer organization, established in 2013, I've been able to help create many of our internal processes. http://www.alliesforchildren.org/our-staff/mara-christy/ Show less

• Project Manager/Research Associate

  • May 2013 - Aug 2013

  At Allies for Children (formerly known as Child Watch) I managed data and research around numerous child well-being indicators. An analysis of the data was used for advocacy efforts and numerous projects such as a city wide healthcare initiative, Healthy Together, funded through the National League of Cities.



Child Watch of Pittsburgh

• Greater Pittsburgh Area

• Data analyst

  • Oct 2012 - Apr 2013

  I assisted Child Watch with the creation of a new website that allowed individuals, advocacy groups, as well as government officials to access child well-being information easily and with the most current data as possible. This includes looking at indicators of child well-being such as education, family, health, economic security, and community. The end result of this website will lead to a one stop website where many data sources can be found that are usually spread out and difficult to come about. Data included on the site will be a mixture of county, state, and national level data. I have researched multiple data sources as well as created, cleaned and analyzed these data sets thoroughly. The end result will be a website where users can create graphs or maps with multiple variables as well as download the data sets to their personal computers to run their own statistical analysis. Show less



City of Pittsburgh

• United States
• Government Administration
• 700 & Above Employee

• Legislative Intern for Councilman William Peduto

  • Jan 2012 - Apr 2012

  Researched potential policy options for Pittsburgh. Specifically worked on potential recycling incentives, bike-sharing and vacant property policies. Assisted with constituent outreach on a daily basis including answering request and problem solving. Completed interoffice duties such as writing thank you letters and other clerical assistance. Researched potential policy options for Pittsburgh. Specifically worked on potential recycling incentives, bike-sharing and vacant property policies. Assisted with constituent outreach on a daily basis including answering request and problem solving. Completed interoffice duties such as writing thank you letters and other clerical assistance.



Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Student Assistant

  • Sep 2009 - May 2011

  Served as the office assistant, assisted professors in preparation for classes, and preformed other clerical duties. Served as the office assistant, assisted professors in preparation for classes, and preformed other clerical duties.



Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

• United States
• Government Administration
• 700 & Above Employee

• Policy Intern, Governor Rendell

  • Aug 2010 - Dec 2010

  Analyzed bills and regulations as they went through the House and Senate in order to make further recommendations to the Governor. I also represented the Governors Policy Office at governmental meetings including committee meetings, department office meetings, and floor sessions. Analyzed bills and regulations as they went through the House and Senate in order to make further recommendations to the Governor. I also represented the Governors Policy Office at governmental meetings including committee meetings, department office meetings, and floor sessions.