Mary White obtained her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in the Department of Oceanography and Wetland Sciences. Her topic of study was the landscape scale modeling of wetland processes. She has participated in numerous field studies in the wetlands of southern Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico during her subsequent employment with the Coastal Ecology Institute at LSU.

Dr. White has been an environmental scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5 for 11 years. During that time she has worked in the Critical Ecosystems Team, the Water Division and now in the Lands and Chemicals Division.