MaryLynn Mack is the Chief Operating Officer of South Coast Botanic Garden, an 87-acre public garden in Palos Verdes Peninsula, Los Angeles County, where she brings over 30 years of staff and volunteer management experience, strategic planning, and project development. Before joining South Coast, Mack served as the Director of Operations at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona, the Executive Director of the Rescue Mission’s Women and Children’s Center, and as the Director of Volunteers and Interns at the San Diego Natural History Museum. She was as a founding member of the African American Women’s Giving and Empowerment Circle. As a Board Member at the Phoenix Metropolitan YWCA she earned the YWCA Tribute to Leadership and Black Philanthropy Institute Leadership awards.

She is a past recipient of the Virginia G. Piper Fellowship, a graduate of The Getty Leadership Institute, and a Veteran of the U.S. Navy. Mack is currently the Board President of the American Public Gardens Association and the Inaugural Chair of the APGA Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, and Accessibility Committee.