Maya is the Director of the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where, in addition to leading outreach and development initiatives and running the internship program, she also teaches Leadership for Social Change, History of Peace Movements, Peace Education, and Conflict Management for Educators. Maya serves as an adviser to the Obama Foundation, working closely with
their international team to develop programming in the Asia Pacific region. She was awarded a Masters degree in Secondary Education from NYU's College of Education and a PhD in Multicultural Education from the University of Hawaii. For many years, she worked at the University of Hawaii's College of Education where she taught Multicultural Education, Social Studies Methods, and Peace Education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Maya has published a number of book contributions as well as a picture book entitled Ladder to the Moon and is currently under contract to write a Young Adult novel entitled Yellowwood. Maya sits on many voluntary boards and is the co-founder of the nonprofit Ceeds of Peace, which creates peacebuilding action plan workshops for educators, families and community leaders.