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Maria has spent nearly three decades in diverse, multicultural, and multi-ethnic environments across Mexico, South Africa, and the United States. She began her career as a consultant in Strategic Planning for several public and private companies in Mexico. She then went to work for the government, were she developed and led a diverse team to evaluate public research centers in Mexico. After completing her graduate studies in Educational Leadership in the United States, she helped DePaul University to build partnerships with Mexico’s top universities. Life took her to South Africa, where she was involved in the launch of the first Pan-African high schoo​l in Johannesburg, which has the mission to find brilliant young leaders who have the potential to transform the future of Africa. In Mexico City, she was a Business and Economics professor for a Culinary Arts Program. Living in Delaware, she worked for an international non-profit organization dedicated to leading and financing projects for school construction and leadership development across Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.

After a break in her career, Maria recognized that students of Latino heritage who are Spanish speakers are an underserved population, and therefore she has started a Master of Arts ​​Program in Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Pedagogy for Spanish. She is very interested in teaching Spanish and other subjects like mathematics or business in Spanish. She wishes to pursue the certification in Spanish and add a STEAM or Business certification.

Maria is fully bilingual in English and Spanish. She holds a bachelor's in Industrial Engineering, a master's in Educational Leadership, and a graduate certificate in Higher Education Teaching.​​​