María L. Gabriel, Ph.D., has worked as a PK-12 public educator in Colorado since 1997. She has devoted her career to increasing access and opportunity for culturally and linguistically diverse students through direct student support, culturally sustaining family engagement, community-based educational research, and culturally responsive leadership. She has served on local and national boards focused on equity. Her research interests and local, national, and international presentation topics are related to multicultural education, educational equity, Latinx student achievement, and student voice. Her work has been published in journals such as Cuaderno de Investigación en la Educación, Educational Leadership, and the Journal of Latinos and Education. She loves to run, travel, and write. Her joy in life is spending quality time with her two daughters and her Yorkie pup named Bear.