Mary Ruffin Hanbury is the founding principal of Hanbury Preservation Consulting, a firm established to help communities and organizations plan for the future by understanding and protecting those resources that provide a sense of place and a quality of life.
Prior to founding her own firm, she was the Preservation Planning and Grants Supervisor for the North Carolina Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) where she provided technical assistance to over 100 local preservation commissions and managed the Certified Local Government program. As a Program Officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Southern Office, she developed, managed, and executed a national volunteer response program in New Orleans in response to Hurricane Katrina. She also provided advisory and field services throughout fifteen states in the southern region, developing and implementing strategies for key intervention and advocacy issues. And as an architectural historian for the Tidewater Region of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR/SHPO) she developed, implemented and monitored a comprehensive regional program for the identification, permanent recording, evaluation, registration, and sensitive treatment of historic buildings, structures, districts, objects, and cultural landscapes in the thirty counties and cities of eastern Virginia.
Mary Ruffin has a Bachelors in Art History from Yale University and a Masters in Urban Planning from the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. She has extensive volunteer experience. She has served on the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission and on the board of Preservation Action, a national preservation education and advocacy organization. Currently she is a reader for the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America grants and serves on the board of the North Carolina State Capitol Foundation.