As World War I continued, Bryan was hired at $720 per annum to be a civilian employee in the U.S. Army Medical Department and operated out of Fort McPherson, Georgia.

[5] After Bryan was honorably discharged, effective April 30, 1919, she returned to the US and gave a passionate speech to the ADA's third annual meeting (1920) regarding her experiences with war-time nutritional practices.

"[7] During her term as president, Bryan also oversaw the creation of a formal Social Service Committee to investigate the dietary patterns of minority racial groups and ethnicities.

The specific driving factors for the decision to form this committee are uncertain, but the effect was to preserve a kind of professional and cultural elitisms in the world of dietetics at the time.

[9][10] She earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at Columbia University in 1931,[11] with a dissertation titled "Amylase activity of blood serum in relation to age and nutritional history".

[12] She edited The Journal of Home Economics from 1921 to 1924, helped to revise the cookbook of the United States Navy,[11][13] and wrote a textbook, The School Cafeteria (1936, with Alice M.

[5] Mary deGarmo married Charles W. Bryan Jr., a civil engineer and manufacturing executive of the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co..[23] While living in Chicago, Bryan worked with many charitable and social organizations, including the Mary Bartelme Homes for dependent girls and the Chicago Historical Society, and she also served as a trustee for the local Fourth Fourth Presbyterian.