Mary Ingram

Mary Ingram is a youth advocate, community engagement specialist and TEDx speaker. She was given an award of excellence for her work in the juvenile justice field. Her goal is to reduce the need for juvenile prisons. She received the President's Call to Service Award for her volunteer service. She possesses a strong belief in the power of community service and encourages others to play their role in making the world a better place.

In 2014, Mary founded Volunteer Nebraska Inc. a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower youth to make a difference in their community & their world. Her team provides the framework for children to perform volunteer service, document their work and be recognized for their efforts. She believes it is time to stop introducing community service as a punishment and to recognize it to be a privilege and powerful way to impact the world.

Mary has gone inside the Nebraska juvenile prison system to teach success strategies to the young men. Together, they work on service projects that reach outside prison walls. It proves to them, that their address doesn’t stop them from having a positive influence on their world.

The illustrations for Mary’s first book, The Fallen, were created by an artist who was serving 25 years to life in a Nebraska Prison. The book has been shared with prisons all across the U.S. and in several countries around the world. This simple story of forgiveness is powerful. The book has been recommended as a tool for conflict resolution classes at the middle school & high school levels.

Mary has also presented at youth leadership conferences. She invites young people to look around their communities and to find things that need to be fixed, improved or changed. Then she challenges them to take action.