Dr. Mary Anne Prater is dean of the McKay School of Education and a professor and former chair of the Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education at Brigham Young University. She earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Science from the University of Utah and her Ph.D. at Utah State University. She was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Kentucky in 1997.

Prior to joining the faculty at BYU, Dr. Prater was Professor, Department Chair, and Associate Dean at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (11 years); Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (3 years); and Adjunct Professor at the University of Alaska at Anchorage (1 semester).

She has authored or co-authored eight books and over 100 refereed articles and chapters. She has presented or co-presented over 100 professional presentations nationally and internationally. Dr. Prater currently reviews for 2 professional journals, having served on 8 editorial boards and guest reviewed for 13 additional professional journals. Also she has served in the presidential line for the international Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children (2012-2016).

In 2006, she received the BYU David O. McKay Fellowship and the Faculty Women Association's scholarship award. She also earned the BYU Phi Kappa Phi award in 2010. In 2014 she received the BYU Alice Louise Reynolds Women-in-Scholarship Lecturer Award. In addition she has been a three-time recipient of the annual Hawai'i Education Research Association's Distinguished Paper Award.