Mary Frey

Growing up in St. Paul as the fourth of ten children, Mary Frey learned a lot about give and take.

“It was really a family value, the spirit of giving and accountability,” says Frey. “You learned a lot about pulling your weight.”

She also learned about the importance of getting and using an education—and has made the most of her opportunities as a professional and volunteer. For more than a decade starting in the late 1980s when she was in graduate school at the University of St. Thomas, where she earned a master’s and a doctorate, Frey volunteered as a counselor at the Walk-in Counseling Center and mediated various grief, cancer, and infertility support groups. Her work was about “tending to the emotional needs” of individuals, so now the oncology nurse–turned–counseling psychologist is widening her scope.

“Step by step, piece by piece, we are strengthening families and communities,” Frey says of the organizations with which she currently collaborates—Pacer Center, where she chaired the annual gala for four years, Courage Foundation, ARC Greater Twin Cities, and Catholic Charities, among others.

Frey also focuses on “enhancing the programs we already have” in the community, which she accomplishes by serving on the boards of the Frey Foundation, started by her father-in-law in 1997, and Women of Courage, which Frey helped found in 2005. Both organizations provide grants that impact the community—such as the foundation’s work with affordable housing initiatives and Women of Courage’s human services focus.

“It’s nice to be involved with organizations that have the spirit of giving back—‘to whom much is given, much is expected,’ ” Frey says, quoting the parable from Luke. “I’ve had some great opportunities to use my education and experience to connect great organizations and very generous people.”