Maria Cristina R. Heredia’s work focuses on growing and supporting innovative and effective educational opportunities for students. She has been actively involved with education nonprofits and charter schools in California for over twenty-five years. Maria serves as Chief Legal Officer for Rocketship Public Schools. Prior to Rocketship, Maria worked with the Charter School Growth Fund as an Executive in Residence working in support of small school network development and expansion. Her areas of focus included operations, governance, legal and advocacy. Maria previously worked as Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel with High Tech High. As part of a dedicated operations team, she supported the HTH schools in many areas, including strategic planning, board engagement, authorizer and stakeholder relations, and the development of policies and practices reflecting the school’s culture. Maria also served as Senior Vice President of Legal Advocacy and General Counsel to the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). At CCSA, Maria worked to expand advocacy efforts on behalf of California charter schools, while leading an action that significantly increased the facilities available to students attending charter schools in Los Angeles. Before fully moving into the nonprofit education sector, Maria served charter schools, nonprofits and private companies as an attorney. After gaining hands-on experience as a law partner at Luce Forward LLP, she co-founded California Counsel Group, a law practice focusing on empowerment through education and entrepreneurship. Maria has enjoyed teaching graduate level classes in education law and policy and nonprofit entrepreneurship, and has served on the boards of various nonprofits. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Harvard University where she earned an AB in American History and Literature.