María Samaniego

María Samaniego (she/her) is a nonprofit leader who has dedicated the last 18 years to improving access to opportunities in underserved communities and is deeply driven by a commitment to collective liberation. Prior to CNAY, she served as the inaugural Deputy Director at the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute and Senior Program Manager for the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program. In these roles, she spearheaded fund development, programmatic and partnership efforts, ensuring the success of economic mobility and other issue area policy initiatives. María has held several roles with Voto Latino and Occidental College’s Neighborhood Partnership Program, where she led education, civic engagement and leadership development initiatives utilizing data driven best practices. She currently serves on the Advisory Council for Support Latino Business Day and previously served on the board for Viva Panama, a nonprofit focused on building community and sharing the rich culture of Panama across the globe.

María is an alumnus of the HOPE Leadership Institute and was a Hispanics in Philanthropy Líderes Fellow. In 2020 she was awarded with an Aspen Institute Staff Achievement Award and, in 2019, was named to Prospanica DC’s 40 under 40 in Washington, DC list. María holds a Master of Arts (MA) in Education from Michigan State University, an MA in Latin American Studies from California State University, Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Chicano Studies from the University of California, Davis.

María is the proud daughter of immigrants from Mexico and Panama. She currently resides on the traditional homelands of the Tongva people, also known as the greater Los Angeles region with her husband and young son.