Dr. Mary McBride
By Holly Burns
Issue 3 Spring 2010
Mary became involved with the design management community in the 1990’s working as a consultant for major design companies. She earned her Ph.D. from NYU, specializing in Marketing Communications and Systems Analysis with a focus on the design of organizational systems, marketing strategies and management structures for peak performance.
Today, Mary is the Director of the Design Management program at Pratt Institute where she has been busy building out the program since assuming the position in 1999. She also teaches some of the program’s foundation courses.
She was Director of Executive Communication at New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business and Co-Director of the Management Decision Laboratory where she ran the organization development lab. As Clinical Professor at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and coach to leaders across the NGO and public and private sector, Mary helps create a bridge between strategy, design and social innovation.
Internationally, she has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at many international universities and she has been recognized with various awards for excellence in teaching.
Mary is a Partner in Strategies For Planned Change (SPC), leading the executive coaching practice. Her pro bono activities include service on the Board of Clean Production Action and the Foundation for Environmentally Triggered Illness, which are focused on chemicals of concern in commercial products.
Mary has been nominated for an Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneers award and she is writing a book, Leading as if Life Matters: Benign by Design, which will speak to the role of strategic design in creating sustainable advantage and social innovation.