Inspired by what diverse groups of people can accomplish with the right information and a culture of collaboration, Mary Ann began consulting with nonprofits and social enterprises in 2014 and launched Ehlshlager Consulting in 2022, bringing creative processes, leadership experience and financial acumen from the performing arts to serve a broader array of organizations that build strong communities.

As a strategy and finance consultant, Mary Ann has worked within Propel Nonprofits in Minneapolis and 501 Commons in Seattle and to design and innovate programs which help sustain nonprofits’ mission impact. Clients include, among others: Asian Economic Development Association; Camp Noah of Lutheran Social Service; Change, Inc.; Consensus Council; Girls on the Run; Hopewell Music Cooperative North; Langston Art Center; Maji ya Chai Land Sanctuary; Mentor Minnesota; Minnesota Film & TV; Pacific Music Works; Red Eagle Soaring; SEAD Project; Young Women Empowered; and the Youth Leadership Initiative.

As a nonprofit leader, Mary Ann has served in executive roles in nonprofit theatres across the country, as Managing Director of Seattle Children’s Theatre, and as the first to hold that role within both the Delaware Theatre Company in Wilmington and The Pearl in New York City’s East Village. Prior to that, she worked as Theatre Manager of Broadway’s Studio 54 and as Project Manager of the Guthrie Theater’s “21st Century Dream Factory” on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Mary Ann holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BA from the University of Virginia. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the homeland of the Dakota and Anishinaabe, with her husband and a rather mischievous puppy.