PRISM Research Lab

Maria is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Education Policy & Leadership program at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include policies and interventions that improve mathematical learning outcomes and overall educational experiences among students of color from low-income backgrounds. Maria was recently selected as a member of the 2024-2026 Jackson Scholars cohort by the University Council for Educational Administration (an initiative focused on the development of a robust pipeline of faculty and graduate students of color in educational leadership).

She earned her B.A. degree in mathematics from Mount Holyoke College and her Ed.M. degree in Teacher Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before graduate school, Maria served as an AmeriCorps member in the admissions team at Breakthrough New York. She later served as Graduate Coordinator for the Women in STEM program at Harvard College. Maria has worked on several research projects outside of the PRISM Lab that address various educational issues, including Latinx parental engagement, linguistic cultural diversity, and Title I funding impacts across schools in the state of New York.

In the summer of 2025, Maria served the Policy & Research Intern at the Learning Policy Institute (a national organization that conducts and communicates independent, high-quality research to improve education policy and practice). She is a contributing author for multiple peer-reviewed conference presentations based on research in the PRISM Lab about racial and intersectional equity in undergraduate mathematics.