Mara Lee Durrell

Biography

Mara Lee Durrell joined Rise in 2024 as its Executive Director, whose mission is to educate, heal, and empower children by embedding trauma-informed, play-based programs in vulnerable communities around the world. For nearly a decade prior she was the CEO of the PeaceWorks Foundation and the OneVoice Movement, which received the Skoll Award in 2008. Mara previously served as a political appointee in the Obama Administration as the Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. Before that she was Congresswoman Doris Matsui’s Deputy Chief of Staff & Communications Director. A campaign veteran, Mara has served in leadership positions on behalf of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Jeanne Shaheen. While in DC, she had the honor of being an adjunct professor in politics at George Washington University for six years.