Maria Heredia serves as Chief Legal Officer, responsible for overseeing all aspects of legal, compliance, and governance operations work for the Rocketship Public Schools network.

Maria has been actively involved with K-12 schools and education nonprofits for over twenty-five years, focusing on creating, expanding, and supporting innovative and effective educational opportunities for K-12 and college students. Maria’s experience includes leadership and active involvement in establishing and growing charter management operational systems as well as strategic planning, board engagement, governmental and stakeholder relations, and policy and advocacy work. Maria most recently completed her role as an Executive in Residence with the Charter School Growth Fund. There she worked across the Fund’s Seed, Scale, and Structured Finance teams supporting portfolio members from various states across the country in addressing start-up, expansion, operational, and governance questions.

Maria previously served as Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel at High Tech High, a network of 16 charter schools in San Diego, and taught a graduate level course on School Law to new school leaders at High Tech High Graduate School of Education. Prior to that Maria served as Senior Vice President of Legal Advocacy and General Counsel to the California Charter Schools Association. Before fully moving into the nonprofit education sector, she served charter schools, nonprofits, and private companies at two law firms: California Counsel Group, a law firm she co- founded and as a partner at Luce Forward Hamilton and Scripps LLP.

Maria is a graduate of Stanford Law School where she focused on the Lawyering for Social Change Curriculum, and Harvard University where she earned an A.B. in American History and Literature.