Facility & IT Coordinator
Mary Burkert grew up in Illinois. She later earned an associate degree in court reporting from Midstate College of Commerce in Peoria before becoming employed as a freelance reporter, first in Oklahoma City, and then in Dallas.
Becoming a stay-at-home mom in 1996, after the birth of her third daughter, allowed Mary to engage in 15 years of rigorous involvement in her church’s Sunday School program, Girl Scouts, and PTA, as well as eight years with National Charity League. Throughout those years, Mary served on many boards and received several awards, including the Green Angel Award in Girl Scouting and the Golden Apple Award from RISD.
Mary began working in a part-time position in the finance department at Parkinson Voice Project in June of 2012 which fit her desire to rejoin the workforce and serve alongside other women with a passion for making a difference through the nonprofit experience.
Mary’s years of leadership and community service were a natural transition to connecting other organizations, students, and individuals with servants’ hearts to volunteer at Parkinson Voice Project. Mary’s team provides necessary training to enable our volunteers to lead our guests with INTENT at our events and lectures. She also provides assembly-line training so that our new SPEAK-OUT! trained speech-language pathologists receive their therapy materials in mint condition. This same standard and attention to detail applies in packing workbook mailings to other SPEAK OUT! patients in the USA and in packing LOUD Crowd materials being sent to grant recipients throughout the world.
In July 2015, Mary joined the full-time staff when her youngest went off to college. She continued working in the finance office but took over the duties of the LOUD Crowd Assistant as well, setting up groups and enjoying getting to know our patients. Throughout her time at Parkinson Voice Project, Mary has worn many hats and enjoys tackling issues related to growth. Mary is married, has three daughters, one son-in-law, and was blessed with her first grandchild in 2019!
