Mary-Ann El Sharouni was born in Heemstede, the Netherlands. She attended high school at the Christelijk Lyceum Zeist, the Netherlands, finishing with distinction in 2007, whilst also receiving her international ‘Bachelor’s Degree’ in English. She commenced her study in Medicine at the Utrecht University the same year. During this period, she started work as a research student at the Department of Pathology at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU).

After obtaining her Medical Degree in 2014, Mary-Ann continued to work on what would later become her PhD thesis under the supervision of Prof Paul van Diest, whilst completing her internships. After a year of working as a qualified educational teacher at the Department of Dermatology at the UMCU, she started her Dermatology Registry at the UMCU on 1st January 2016. She continued to work on her PhD thesis, whilst commencing her post-graduate masters in Clinical Epidemiology, which led to the supervision of her second PhD supervisor, Prof. Carla van Gils. She completed an 8-month research fellowship in 2020-2021 at Melanoma Institute Australia, Sydney, Australia, to collaborate with the research group of Prof. John Thompson, Prof Richard Scolyer, and Associate Prof. Serigne Lo; and she attended dermatology clinics under the supervision of Prof. Pascale Guitera at Sydney Melanoma Diagnostic Centre (SMDC). This resulted in obtaining her PhD with distinction in January 2022.

Mary-Ann is deeply passionate about the care of skin cancer patients, especially those with melanoma. She joined Sydney Melanoma Diagnostic Centre in September 2023.