Maria grew up in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1984 to pursue her PhD in Immunology at the University of California, Berkeley. She currently resides in Oakland and is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State University, East Bay (CSUEB). For more than thirty years Maria has focused her efforts on teaching, research, writing, and underrepresented minority student promotion.
Whether in science or art my work has been informed and guided by social and political landscapes that intersect and enrich each other.
Awards
- 2016 International Latino Book Awards - 1 First Place and 2 Second Place Awards for The Water of Life Remains in the Dead
- First Place - Latina Themed Book
- Second Place - Mystery category and YA Latino Focused Fiction
