Mary graduated from the University of Sydney in and worked in companion animal practice in Sydney before completing an internship and residency in small animal internal medicine in North America. Mary has spent the last 15 years working at The University of Queensland, where she completed her PhD, and more recently (2015-2020) at Murdoch University. Her major area of research interest is bacterial urinary tract disease/colonisation of dogs and cats but she enjoys most aspects of internal medicine and working with veterinary students