Ask Mary Mac

Grief and Bereavement Specialist, Host of The Mary Mac Show Podcast, The Mary Mac Store, Award-Winning Author, Speaker and Foundation for Grieving Children, Inc. Founder/President, Blogger, Consultant, Private Bereavement Executive Coach and nationally-know Crime Victims’ Rights Advocate. Mary M. McCambridge (Ask Mary Mac) shares her thirty-five years experience assisting those who are grieving a loved one's death.

Before completing college, Mary McCambridge (Ask Mary Mac), had experienced the death of four friends - two teenagers to drunk drivers, two college students to inoperable cancer. Later she would sustain many other deaths of family members and close friends including the murder of her 11 year-old stepdaughter, which took her former husband and herself on an eighteen year jou ey to help solve the crime. These life experiences led her to become involved in the field of bereavement.

She developed and edited the award-winning National Directory of Bereavement Support Groups and Services, Understanding Your Grieving Heart After a Loved One’s Death, Homicide: Understanding the Unique Challenges Survivors Face and Surviving the Holidays and Other Significant Events After a Loved One's Death, as well as other works in this field.

She uses her thirty-five years of experience assisting the bereaved through her MaryMac.info website where her weekly bereavement podcast, column, blogs, articles, books and forums help hurting people better understand their jou ey.

She is Founder and President of the Foundation for Grieving Children, the only national public charity which raises funds and provides grants to community-based non-profits which assist, counsel, comfort and educate children, teens, young adults and their families after a loved one's death.

She received her B.S. in Counseling from the University of Scranton and an MBA in Finance/International Business from Fordham University. She has received numerous awards including being honored by New York State Senate Legislative Resolution for her work on behalf of survivors of homicide victims and received Best New Directory, First Edition from the Directory Publishers Association for her book The National Directory of Bereavement Support Groups and Services.

She received the Healing Hands award for her extensive work with bereaved children and families from A Caring Hand, a center for grieving children in New York, NY. She has also been honored by her alma mater, the University of Scranton, with the Frank J. O'Hara Award for distiguished service to the community, the highest award given to alumni.

She has been featured in newspaper articles in the New York Daily News, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, and has also appeared on numerous radio, podcast and television shows including CBS’s Up to the Minute, and News 12 Long Island.

She has trained assistant district atto eys, homicide detectives, crime victim/witness counselors and other law enforcement professionals to the needs and challenges of survivors of homicide victims. As a Crime Victims Advocate, she accompanied families of homicide victims to trial and coached them on the nuances of the criminal justice system.

Mary has spoken at the World Gathering on Bereavement, Parents of Murdered Children's national conferences, held seminars at The Knowledge Shop in Orlando, FL as well as having attended numerous conferences on adult and childhood grief. She also was a guest lecturer at St. John's University class on Victimology.

It is her passion to address the unmet needs of grieving children, teens and young adults which birthed the creation of the Foundation for Grieving Children and to educate society to the needs of bereaved persons everywhere.