Before joining the Center, Maya was a staff attorney for Communities for a Better Environment, where she advocated for environmental justice in California’s low-income communities of color. She also teaches Environmental Justice Law as an adjunct instructor at UCLA School of Law. Maya has a law degree from the UCLA School of Law, a master’s degree in U.S. environmental and legal history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Washington in Seattle.