A recent graduate of the Nutriphoria School of Holistic Nutrition as a Registered Nutrition and Health Counselor  and an accomplished thirty year marketing and communications professional in the financial services industry, Mary began a communications consulting branch of De Sousa Group in 2017 specializing in strategic planning for small companies and not-for-profit organizations.   She is currently developing her Health Coach practice and hopes to launch in the spring of 2023.   Prior to starting her own consulting company, she was Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales at FirstOntario Credit Union.  Her work there contributed to the significant increase in overall company performance, three successful credit union mergers, a 100% increase in the number of branches, and leadership roles on province wide and national marketing committees.  As well, Mary lead the executive team that negotiated corporate sponsorship contracts for large sport and entertainment facility naming rights across Southern Ontario.

Born in the Niagara Region and a graduate of Brock University, Mary is passionate about her community.  Her leadership role at the credit union enabled contributions in the Niagara region to breakfast programs, literacy support initiatives for Big Brothers & Big Sisters, Microloan funding and Small business education programs and bringing awareness to the impacts of payday loans to name a few.  In November 2018, Mary was awarded the YWCA of Niagara Champion Award in recognition of her volunteer strategic planning work with their Board of Directors.

Mary is currently the Vice Chair of the Brock University Board of Trustees and Chair of the Governance and Nomination Committee as well as the 2022 Canada Summer Games Host Society Board in Niagara.