Mary Sandra Lovelace Nicholas CM (born April 15, 1948) is a former Canadian senator representing New Brunswick.
She studied at St. Thomas University and also obtained a degree in residential construction from the Northern Technical College in Maine, while living in the United States.
After being divorced from a non-Aboriginal man and returning to the Tobique reserve, Lovelace Nicholas found she and her children had lost their status as First Nations people, depriving them of rights to housing, education, and healthcare for a decade.
This protected the status of First Nations women and their children, and was important in preserving the culture of descendants who identified as Aboriginal.
Other members are Jeannette Corbiere-Lavell, Yvonne Bedard, Sharon McIvor, Lynn Gehl, and Senator Lillian Eva Dyck.
It took her nearly a decade to reclaim her First Nations status, leading to her work as an activist on this and related issues for women and children's rights.