While born and raised in Kansas City, Mari attended university at Winona State in Winona, MN after graduating from Shawnee Mission North in Johnson County. Throughout most of her college career, Mari was the campus radio station Music Director, and she participated in Hispanic outreach with fellow Latino students as a way to get more people involved in a predominately white community. 

 

She earned her B.A in Advertising and minor in Public Relations. 

 

Prior to joining the Good Faith Network, Mari was a union organizer on the Starbucks Union campaign where she organized workers in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and southern Illinois.