Maya’s career has been anything but linear. She began in the arts: making, curating, and managing collections. When Maya started administering grant programs, she saw firsthand how fragile funding models were. During the 2008 financial crisis, Maya decided to start a business. The vision was to challenge non-profit business models, but quickly Maya realized she lacked business fundamentals to scale her new venture. In 2011, Maya decided to pursue a DMBA at CCA where she discovered UX Research and began an unexpected career pivot.  

Since then, Maya has worked across industries to help product teams escape reactive, short-term decisions and instead ground their work in research and data to build lovable products. She has led research at Gannett, Indiegogo, DocuSign, and Google Ads. In 2020 Maya built the UX research and design program for Google’s incubator Area 120, working with 58 product teams.

Today as the founder of Velocity Ave, Maya partners with both early-stage startups and public companies. As a leader and advisor, Maya encourages UXers to connect their craft to the bigger business picture and to design with both rigor and imagination. Maya is co-authoring a forthcoming O’Reilly book called UX Skills for Business Strategy (2026) and is a volunteer with the NM DOH Youth initiative.

Beyond work, Maya enjoys watching the New Mexico sunsets, hiking, skiing, live music, and traveling with her family.