Maria Onaindia

Originally from Kimberly, ID, Maria attended Wellesley College where she graduated with BA in Mathematics and Economics in 2011. She spent two years working as a Business Analyst on a valuations team at Capital One before shifting to work consulting. As a consultant, she supported the software company NetApp. In 2014 she decided to shift her career focus towards service and became a teacher at Henderson Collegiate High School in Henderson, NC and later Rauner College Prep in Chicago, IL. She served as a 2021-22 Teach Plus Policy Fellow for the state of Illinois where she completed original research on recruiting and retaining teachers of color. For the past two years she has worked as a Senior Research Analyst for the State of Wisconsin focusing on equity in the juvenile justice system. Maria is excited to join the IPI team and will be moving back to Idaho this summer with her husband Eric, who will be a professor at College of Idaho in the Fall, and her three rescue dogs.