Mary Schulte received her B.S. in Physical Education and Spanish at Missouri State University and pursued an M.A. in Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia with a double emphasis in magazine writing and photojournalism. After a short stint at a newspaper out of state, Mary returned to her hometown, Kansas City, and began work as a photojournalist at The Kansas City Times. She covered general assignments from spot news to fashion to photo essays at The Times and then at The Star, when the newspapers merged. Mary has supported and encouraged women in the field of photojournalism as she supervised photo department interns and worked with peers in the profession.
When Mary agreed to work as a photo editor for a year, she had no idea it would eventually turn into 15 years in a variety of editing positions with the sports, features, metro and online desks. One of her most exciting collaborations was working with the editing team and photographers covering the Kansas City Royals on their road to the World Series in 2015.
Throughout her career, Mary has been an educator. She has spent 25 years as an adjunct professor at Johnson County Community College, where she helped to develop the photojournalism course. Mary currently teaches at Gardner-Edgerton High School as the Digital Photography teacher and head of the Broadcast Journalism program.