Maria came to Carolina's Career Services Office in January 2005. She counsels students and alumni on all aspects of job searching and career development. She is especially interested in working with students who plan to work in small and medium sized firms in North Carolina, students considering judicial clerkships, women's career issues, and working with those who are members of groups historically underrepresented in the legal profession.
Maria graduated from UNC Law School in 1982, and has worked in the Triangle area ever since, including serving as a staff attorney at the North Carolina Court of Appeals, practicing with small firms in Raleigh and Durham, and in the Office of Career Services at Duke Law School and as a Legal Writing instructor there. She is a past president of the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, was on the Board of Directors of NC LEAF from 2005-2012, serves on the board of the North Carolina Gay Advocacy Legal Alliance, and is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association's Minorities in the Profession Committee. In 2008-2009 she co-chaired that committee's Summer Associates Program. She is currently serving as President of the Susie Sharp Inn of Court in Raleigh (2011-2013). In addition to her law degree, Maria has a BA from the University of Virginia and an MA from Duke, both in English literature. She and her husband, Durham attorney Dan Read (also a Carolina Law alum), have two children, both of whom graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill. In her spare time she is an avid reader, creative writer, and enthusiastic cook.