With almost three decades of experience in higher education, Maria Reyes devoted her time to strengthening recruitment and retention of underrepresented populations in STEM. Her passion for STEM programs began at Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and spent the last 20 years at the Maricopa County Community Colleges in Arizona.

Ms. Reyes joined Google Cloud (2021) where she now serves as the Global Workforce Innovation & Development Manager. She is passionate about the work to identify and develop local workforce talent for the data center industry.

In 2022, Ms. Reyes was honored to be appointed by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. to serve as a Commissioner for the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. 

During her time in higher education, she also developed and worked with grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US Department of Education, and the US Department of Labor with an estimated grant impact of $25M. Her proudest career distinction is the establishment of the Hermanas: Diseña Tu Futuro Conferences for middle and high school students, which successfully increased  the number of Latinas studying within the field of engineering. For over 15 years, “Hermanas” served more than 6,000 young women across Maricopa County.

She serves on several non-profit boards based in Silicon Valley and participates in community outreach. She is an engineer, with both a BS and MS from Arizona State University and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She is the author and contributing writer for more than 20 academic publications with an emphasis on the social and cultural pedagogies of underserved students in STEM.