When Mary was young girl in Greenville, her mother worked at a hair and beauty supply shop. Mary remembers being fascinated by all the different products and wanting to work with them all. In the 60s, Mary attended Sterling High School until it burned down, and then was integrated in to Carolina High School.

After high school, Mary followed her dream and became a cosmetologist. She loved making women feel better about themselves. She wanted to help others follow their dreams, but saw a lot of the youth in the community get caught in a vicious cycle. With one or more parents incarcerated, past juvenile delinquency, teenage parenthood, Mary saw kids 16-21 dropping out of school, and into a life of struggle and misery.

So Mary, with her daughter Rena, founded NABS Independent Professionals, a non-profit organization that provides kids in our community a second chance at learning a career that would keep them off the streets and employed for the rest of their lives. Although she originally targeted boys, she realized the need to open the program to all minorities and added programs to help women and the Hispanic community as well.

NABS (National Association of Barber Science) offers an educational program preparing students for their state licensing. Individuals who complete the courses receive an alternative occupational certificate that qualifies them to take their board exams, as well as collaboration on their GED/ER adult education classes.

In addition, Mary believes in providing opportunities for students to "earn while they learn", and they can receive a stipend as they complete various parts of the program. She focuses not just on cosmetology and barber science, but all aspects of owning a salon or barbershop: recordkeeping, marketing, and other areas of increased related instruction.

Mary is able to provide scholarships and loans to the program so that students who might not be able to participate don't have to abandon their dreams, or lose their chance to break out of the cycle. Mary's three goals with NABS are to provide each student with work experience, job placement assistance, and a guarantee of self-sufficiency for the rest of their lives.

Mary and her husband Willie have 4 children: Rena, Reginald, Will, and Lorenzo. She's a proud member of Rock Hill Baptist Church #1 in Greenville and volunteers for several of their service organizations and committees.

For styling a program that would help our youth feel good about themselves and their career, 107.3 JAMZ is proud to salute Mary Nealas a 2008 Upstate Black History Maker.