Maria

Maria began at Alta California Regional Center in 2020, right before the start of the pandemic. She has experience working with young children, and prior to her transition to a Service Coordinator at the regional center, she worked in Emergency Response at Child Protective Services. Her career has been built on helping others and providing them the space to feel comfortable in seeking help.

In 2011, Maria received two associate degrees at Woodland Community College and continued her education when she transferred to California State University, Sacramento, receiving a bachelor’s in psychology in 2013. In 2019, she obtained a master’s in social work from University of Southern California. She pursued these degrees because she was inspired by her sister who also works as a social worker. Maria found she could relate to other people through her own experiences and trauma she overcame and help them find a path that would help them improve their lives.

As an immigrant, Maria understands the difficulties immigrants face when navigating having a developmental disability. She can communicate with her families in Spanish and English to help them better understand services that can help the family thrive. She uses her past experiences of being raised by her sister due to her parents needing to work long hours to convey to families the importance of having the parents involved in the development of their child(ren). Maria shines a light on how influential the first five years of a child’s life can be and provides her family with knowledge about services that can help them.

Maria’s favorite part about working at the regional center is the support she receives from her team and all the opportunities to become further involved. She enjoys participating in outreach events to meet with the community and provide information on the regional center. Maria is always happy to learn and grow more and participate in new opportunities to better community engagement.