Maryknoll Affiliates

Mary Massaro is a member of the Philadelphia Chapter in the Northeast Region of the Maryknoll Affiliates. She served as a Maryknoll Sister in rural Tanzania from 1971 to 1979 and was a member of the Maryknoll Sisters World Awareness team from 1979 to 1982. Mary later left the Congregation to respond to another vocation. In 1984, she married her life partner Richard Massaro, who shares her spiritual journey and continuing call to mission. In her early years of re-entry to U.S. culture from Africa, Mary worked at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate in Washington, DC, and in the Washington Office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) before doing graduate studies at UCLA.

Mary returned to AFSC, serving as Regional Director for Africa from 1993 to 2002, where she coordinated program development, planning and evaluation with African directors and staff working with local communities in six African countries across the continent in disaster and war relief and rehabilitation, and on social and economic development. Mary also oversaw the work of Africans serving as regional international affairs representatives, who provided AFSC with information and analysis of critical African peace and justice issues and who served as a Quaker presence and catalyst in local and regional peace-building and reconciliation efforts. Responsible for a 1.5 million dollar budget, Mary also represented AFSC’s Africa Region in dealings with constituents and leading European and American donor organizations.

Mary retired from AFSC in 2002 and shortly thereafter joined staff of The American College in Bryn Mawr, PA, as executive assistant to two senior vice presidents, whom she represents in communications with donors, volunteers, and board members; organizes meetings and events; and provides a wide range of administrative services.

Mary earned a Masters in African Area Studies at UCLA in 1989; a diploma in Religious Education and Pastoral Studies at AMECEA Pastoral Institute in Eldoret, Kenya, in 1977; and a BA at Mary Rogers College in Maryknoll, New York, in 1971. Mary was also a National Resource Fellowship recipient at UCLA from 1986 – 1988, and the African Studies Program nominee in 1988 for Graduate Women of the Year Award sponsored by the UCLA Association of Academic Women. Mary continues to maintain a personal involvement in justice and peace networks, with a primary focus on Africa.