Mara is a senior human resources strategist and executive business partner with a deep passion for helping organizations build best-in-class workplace cultures. Mara currently serves as Executive Vice President, Head of People & Culture at Chroma Technology Corp., a high-tech manufacturer for the scientific, biomedical, and photonics imaging industries and also an essential business in the fight against Covid-19.
Chroma is 100% employee-owned, a Certified B Corporation, awarded the 2020 Deane C. Davis Outstanding Business of the Year, 2021 Vermont Business Growth Award, and recognized over several years as a Best Places to Work in Vermont and Best for Workers by B Labs. Mara also currently serves as the Vermont State Council Director–Elect for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Prior to these roles, Mara served as Chief Administrative Officer of PC Construction, Vice President of Human Resources & Communications for Simon Pearce, Principal Consultant at Mara Rae Consulting, and Director of HR with RSG Inc. Earlier in her career, she held HR leadership positions in the cosmetics and fragrance industries for 12 years in New York City.
For nearly 30 years, Mara has held positions in a breadth of company structures ranging from multi-billion dollar global and publicly-traded enterprises to not-for-profit organizations, ESOPs, and small private firms. She has helped establish people and culture best practices in a variety of industries including luxury consumer goods, professional consulting services, biotech, general contracting, manufacturing, arts, and entertainment. She holds an MS in Human Resources Management from Milano Graduate School of Policy, Management, and Environment at the New School University and a BA in Communications from Queens College, City University of New York. She is also a graduate of Leadership Upper Valley. Mara is a Senior Certified Professional (SCP) with SHRM, and is a member of several national and local SHRM chapters.
Her volunteer experience includes serving as Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with SHRM VT State Council and as part of a Pay Equity Employer Cohort with Change the Story Vermont. Mara has also served on the Industry Advisory Board of Manhattan’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and locally as an Employer Champion for the Working Bridges Program of Granite United Way, and as a member of the Corporate Workforce Development Committee of Vital Communities. Mara was recently named 2020 Vermont Human Resources Professional of the Year by the Vermont State Council of SHRM.
