Mary Lucille Sullivan is a feminist activist and member of the Australian branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. She lives in Melbourne surrounded by her five daughters and is passionate about creating a space for women to live their lives free of oppression. She has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Melbourne and is the author of What Happens When Prostitution Becomes Work: An update on legalised prostitution in Australia (2006). She has written two other books on social justice issues, An Australian Pilgrimage: Muslims in Australia from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (1993) and Colony to Community (1997). She is also a contributor to Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography (2004)

Making Sex Work evolved from her PhD in political science at the University of Melbourne.  In 2004 she conducted a successful tour in the US lecturing on the negative impact of legalised prostitution. She has toured the US, Britain and Norway discussing the impact of legalised prostitution.