According to an interview with her mother, Elke Mayer, it was while studying there that she decided to begin a career in radio.

[4] In 1997, Mayer moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to work as a news writer at the public radio station WBUR.

[5] In 1998, she earned her master's degree in journalism at Columbia University,[6][7] and was hired to work as an intern for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in Prague.

[4] She worked in several positions within NPR, including as production assistant of Weekend Edition Saturday, and associate producer and director of All Things Considered.

[4] Mayer died on November 13, 2021, at the Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland,[9] from a pulmonary embolism.