Mara Welsh Mahmood

Mara Welsh Mahmood has been involved with UC Links since 1996, when she was a graduate student at UC Riverside, teaching the UC Links undergraduate practicum course and serving as the site coordinator for the UC Links program at a local elementary school. Upon earning her PhD in developmental psychology in 1997, Mara joined the UC Links statewide office as the Director of Site Development and Evaluation, where she stayed until 2004, when budget cuts forced the program to eliminate staffing. She went on to teach at UC Davis and worked as an educational consultant to local and statewide agencies and organizations evaluating 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school programs; facilitating strategic planning projects; and developing grant proposals. Mara has studied and written about learning within and across multiple contexts including K-12, higher education, after-school, as well as out-of-school learning in São Paulo, Brazil. She returned as Associate Director of UC Links in 2018 and is currently serving as Interim Executive Director.