Maria is inspired by the Billi Odegaard Scholarship Fund Board and its mission of supporting diverse individuals to become registered nurses. She herself graduated from the University of Guam, where the majority of students were from the Pacific Islands, which has left a lasting impression of multicultural nursing and the need for a diverse nursing workforce in our communities.

She has been  advocating for health care language access for over 30 years and has contributed to the following seminal efforts:  ASTM Workgroup; Oregon SB 790/law, a major contributor for credentialing of healthcare interpreters; National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (board member and founding member); Chair for the Governor’s Council on Healthcare in Oregon; Certification Commission on Healthcare Interpreters (Commissioner and founding member); Oregon Health Care Interpreter Association (board member and President) and is now President Emeritus. She developed and managed both the medical interpreter program at Oregon Health Sciences University and the Health Care Interpreter training program at Portland Community College (nation’s first community college offering).

Her leadership awards give proof of her passion, work and dedication for all of our communities: Governor John Kitzhaber Public Health Leadership Award; National Council on Interpreting in Health Care Language Access Award; Oregon Health Authority Language Access Champion Award and Oregon Health Care Interpreters Association’s Lifetime Achievement and Language Access Champion Awards.

Maria loves birding, her pets, roaming through Oregon’s vineyards and world-wide traveling.