Maria is a palliative care and board-certified emergency physician who cares for patients at San Diego area Scripps Health campuses, primarily focusing on Scripps Mercy Chula Vista. She is an immigrant and first-generation college graduate who achieved her calling as a physician on a nontraditional pathway.

An experienced former educator, with a focus on middle- and high-school mathematics, Maria majored in elementary education, then earned master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics education and educational leadership, respectively, while teaching full-time.

Her doctoral dissertation addressed the gender gap in STEM fields and rekindled her desire to become a physician; she went on to attend Vanderbilt School of Medicine and trained in Emergency Medicine at Kaiser Permanente San Diego, followed by fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at UCSD.