Mary Becht has served as Director of the Broward Cultural Division since 1984. Ms. Becht has served as on-site evaluator for the Florida Cultural Institution Program and the National Endowment for the Arts. Currently she serves on the Board of Directors of the United States Urban Arts Federation and Vice Chair of the Florida Cultural Alliance and the South Florida Cultural Consortium. She has also served as President of the Florida Association of Local Arts Agencies, Chair of the South Florida Cultural Consortium, and President of the Broward Women's Alliance. Ms. Becht is currently the Vice-President of the Florida Cultural Alliance. She has served on many advisory committees and grant review panels for the Florida Arts Council, Florida State Division of Cultural Affairs. Ms. Becht served as a faculty member with the Arts Administration master’s degree program at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland from 2003-2007. Ms. Becht received the Arts Administrator of the Year Award in 2002 from Columbia College, Chicago.

Mary Becht joined Broward County government in 1982 as an economic development planner for the Community Development Division. Prior to accepting a position in Florida, she was Director of Planning for Bayfront NATO, Inc. (Erie, PA), from 1977-1982 and served as a partner in the consulting firm, Power Allen and Associates.

A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, she received a master’s degree in art in 1975 from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She has also completed all course work toward a second master’s degree in public administration from Edinboro University. Additional education experiences include an Arts Management Workshop conducted by the National Endowment for Arts, graduate study in Europe and a Certificate Program in Arts Management from the University of North Carolina and High Performance Organizations Training from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.