Maya comes to Stanford from the Aspen Institute, where she was a Brent Scowcroft Award Fellow working on their national security forums and dialogues. In 2021 she earned her bachelor’s from UC Berkeley, where she was an FGLI student, Leadership Award recipient, and Gilman scholar. While there, she was a Research Apprentice at the Latinx Research Center. As a participant in the State Department’s U.S. Foreign Service Internship Program, she worked for both the Office of Security and Human Rights and U.S. Embassy Lima. She has also interned for the U.N. High Commission on Refugees, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Vice President Kamala Harris's then-Senate office. As a 2022 Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow with the U.S. Department of State, Maya plans to specialize in International Security before beginning her career as an American diplomat. In the MIP program, she hopes to examine the intersection of human rights and climate security, particularly as it relates to humanitarian and refugee crises. Finally, Maya enjoys traveling, stress-baking, costume parties, reading, and finding the best boba in the Bay Area.