In 2008, Mary M Yang served on the Steering Committee of the San Diego Foundation’s Regional Focus 2050 Study. This study included contributions from university researchers, government agencies and others to analyze climate change related impacts on the San Diego region in 2050 under a “business as usual” scenario. This regional wake-up call helped spur the development of climate action plans among the region's 19 municipalities. Today, Mary is Chair of the Climate Action Commission for the City of Solana Beach, a Director of the San Diego Natural History Museum, a Steering Committee member for the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD and active in other organizations that support education and conservation.

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Previously, Mary was the co-founder and former President of an innovative biotech company that provided solutions to challenging problems in the pharmaceutical, biotech/diagnostics and chemical manufacturing industries. She received her training at UC Berkeley (B.S. Chemistry) and Princeton University (Ph.D. Geology) where she was a NSF Graduate Fellow. She is an inventor on twelve patents, author of numerous scientific publications and was nominated for NASA's Woman-Owned Subcontractor of the Year. Earlier, Mary also held positions at MIT, the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland, California Institute of Technology, NASA’s Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Lab. In addition to commercial contracts to the company, her work has been supported by NASA, DOE, NIH and the NSF.

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Having lived and been educated in many countries, Mary has always marveled at the Earth’s natural environment, rejoiced in its wide-open spaces and cherished all of its life forms.