Maria is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at California State University, East Bay where she has been involved in underrepresented minority recruitment, teaching, and research for over 26 years. Maria’s research interests and science publications have focused on cancer cell detection and destruction. More recently Maria’s interests have centered on the subject of sex and gender where she has written popular press articles and an amicus brief that was submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of marriage equality. Maria’s writings extend beyond the field of science. Her first work of fiction, a murder-mystery/crime-drama entitled Pig Behind The Bear, has won four awards to date. Maria’s second novel, The Water of Life Remains in the Dead, was recently ranked #5 on the Latino Author’s top ten list for 2015. Both novels feature a feisty Chicana who uses her Revlon lipstick like a talisman as she works to investigate crimes against the most vulnerable among us - immigrants and children. Maria’s writing uses history, science, and dark humor to force us to see the unseen; the victims we never knew, those killed and abused under the cover of nightfall.