Maya is the founder of Beyond the Bars, a worker organization fighting for better working conditions and safer communities for criminalized workers in South Florida — especially those bound by probation work requirements or subjected to coerced labor in prisons and work release camps. She brings to BTB the skills she developed as Chief Counsel at Worth Rises, where she challenged the prison industry through regulatory, procurement, and policy advocacy, and as staff attorney at Dream Defenders, where she provided legal, policy, and strategic support to organizers on campaigns to divest from policing and incarceration. Her perspective is informed by her personal experiences with the carceral system, in addition to her representation of working class people as a public defender and legal aid attorney. She is deeply committed to and connected with the movement community in Miami and nationally, having created and supported bail funds throughout Florida, built legal defense networks to respond to the George Floyd uprisings, and engaged in various other community and movement initiatives.
For her work, she has been supported by fellowships with organizations including the Galaxy Gives, Law for Black Lives, and Justice Catalyst, and was selected for Health Foundation of South Florida’s 2023 Women in Health Award and Miami New Times’s 2020 Best Activist Award. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.
