Maria Hernandez Pinto

Maria Hernandez Pinto is an international development practitioner dedicated to promoting sustainable and community-led development. 

Before joining Georgetown, Maria worked at several non-profit organizations addressing issues at the intersection of forced migration, gender, and labor rights. At the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, an AFL-CIO constituency group, she developed "know-your-rights" toolkits, supported congressional labor advocacy delegations, and coordinated a leadership fellowship for Latin American union activists. At the California Domestic Workers Coalition, Maria designed worker testimony-centered communications materials for a legislative campaign aimed at securing health and safety protections for domestic workers. She presented her report on domestic worker health and safety at the 2021 American Public Health Association Conference. At the non-profit organization DC Affordable Law Firm Maria conducted trauma informed interviews and collaborated with partner organizations to facilitate access to free legal services for refugee youth and survivors of gender-based violence in the DC area.

She has also contributed to good governance initiatives in Colombia and the United States. While at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Maria monitored potential corruption by tracking financial disclosures for over 100 executive branch officials. At the Colombian nonprofit Funcicar, she collaborated with Juntas de Acción Comunal—local councils advocating for infrastructure development transparency. She supported capacity-building efforts through best practice governance workshops presented to aspiring public officials.

Maria speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, and basic French. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies and Foreign Languages from Pitzer College in 2022. Maria holds Colombian and Guatemalan citizenship.