Mary Skelton Roberts

Mary Skelton Roberts is a co-director for Climate, focusing on transportation and land use—two critical levers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Her portfolio aims to modernize our transit systems and to help communities transform themselves into more walkable, connected places where all residents have attractive alternatives to driving and spend far less time and money traveling by car.

Prior to joining Barr in 2009, Mary was a consultant specializing in problem-solving and dispute resolution of complex corporate, environmental, and public-policy issues. She has worked extensively with nonprofit, government, and private-sector clients in the United States and internationally. She currently serves on the national boards of Hispanics in Philanthropy and the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities. In Boston she volunteers her time with organizations focused on preventing child homelessness, improving animal welfare, and supporting cultural enrichment for Latino children.

Mary holds a master’s degree in city planning with concentrations in consensus-building and environmental policy and planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also holds mediation and facilitation accreditations from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and from the Center for Dispute Resolution in London, England, where she served as lead faculty. She is bilingual, bi-cultural, and a native Spanish-speaker. During her spare time Mary delights in mothering her rambunctious 11-year-old, preventing her dog, Scooter, from catching the squirrels at the Arnold Arboretum, and, when she’s feeling really adventurous, practicing her salsa moves.