María grew up in Petaluma, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in English at UC Berkeley, which is also where she discovered capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial/folkloric art form. Her love of capoeira led her to Brazil, where she lived for 2 years before riding her bicycle back to California.
Before yli, María worked as a grant-writer for a number of nonprofits in San Francisco and the East Bay. As Senior Communications Director, María is responsible for leading yli’s narrative strategy – developing policies that guide our messaging and content, and overseeing our communications channels, like social media. In the past, she ran Calafia – yli’s statewide youth journalism program that uplifts the voices of 10 youth while connecting them to professional media mentors. She is currently managing the K-12 Behavioral Health Services Campaign – a 3-year campaign that builds youth advocates to lead on youth mental health policy at the local and state level.
María is a resident of Oakland, and is grateful every day to live in such a beautiful, vibrant, and diverse city.