In her research investigations Mary places emphasis on fostering agency and self-reliance through human centered design-build projects that address critical global issues advancing the right of every person to live in a socially, economically, and environmentally just community.  Mary’s scholarship creates faculty-student-stakeholder partnerships across campuses and borders, most notably in RIT Hope for Honduras, a multidisciplinary effort that she has directed since 2017. RIT Hope for Honduras, a campus wide initiative, aims to assist in-country partners with reducing infant mortality through design and technology solutions. Grounded in the principles of universal design, Mary’s research seeks to create healing types of architecture and interior environments while enacting global citizenry in students. Conceptually inspired from her personal practice, and developed through collaborative faculty-student research, the MObile KItchen (MO:KI) affords flexibility in organizing a cooking environment responsive to the needs of the home chef, regardless of age, stature, and ability. The prototypes are currently in research and development at RIT’s LiveAbility Lab, where Mary is an affiliated faculty.

Professionally, Mary has eighteen years of design experience, across multiple bioregions. She established the first company in Western New York, Gaiatecture Design Studio (now Mary Golden | Design Studio), after graduating in 2002 with a master’s degree in Architecture from the University at Buffalo merging innovative architectural and interior solutions with natural building practices. The company specialized in natural building technologies and clay finish plasters and evolved in 2013 to include sustainable, custom interiors and hybrid projects that integrated mainstream materials and ecological systems.  Interior design services focused on high end custom residential, small scale commercial, retail and restaurant clientele.