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As the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, Maria is at the helm of the leading organization in the US fighting to end the war on drugs in the United States and beyond. Previously, Maria held several positions at Human Rights Watch, including as co-director of its US Program, guiding the organization’s work on US criminal justice, immigration, and national security policy; and as deputy Washington director, working on a broad range of US foreign policy issues. She started her career there as the organization’s senior Americas researcher, covering Colombia’s internal armed conflict and working on the extradition and trial of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. Maria is the author of the narrative non-fiction book “There Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia” (Nation Books, Feb. 2017). Maria grew up in Lima, Peru, and holds a JD from NYU School of Law.