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Mary Slater attended Queen Mary College from 1959 until 1962, and graduated with a 2:1 in English.

She was born in Crickhowell, South Wales in 1940, and attended Brecon Girls County Grammar School. She studied French, Latin, German and English at A-level and won a state scholarship in English.

In 1959, she ventured to London from Wales to study English at Queen Mary College. During her time at QMC, she was Union Secretary, and was later elected Secretary of the University of London Student Union.

Slater has described how she has had three careers, after her brief stint as a sub-editor on the Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1963-64.

The first career was as an academic administrator at the University of Sussex from 1964 until 1968. She became Assistant Registrar, but left Sussex after marrying.

Slater's second career was with the National Health Service, where she worked from 1969 until 1997. She followed a graduate training scheme in Manchester and relocated to Wales in 1972. She held a wide variety of jobs in Cardiff, finishing as manager of the Artificial Limb and Appliance Service for Wales.

In 1998, her third career in the voluntary sector began with a contract as an Out of School Childcare Clubs co-ordinator in Chwarae Teg/Fairplay, a women's economic development organisation in the voluntary sector. The one year extended to three. By 2001, the new Welsh Assembly was looking to engage with a range of people in Wales, particularly women. The Wales Women's National Coalition (now Women's Voice/Llais Merched) was funded to employ a small number of staff and she became the first manager in 2001. She retired in 2006.

Slater is currently the delegate from Wales to the European Women's Lobby, and she has returned to education to pursue an Msc in Equality and Diversity at Cardiff University.