About Maria
Hi there 👋
The tl;dr
Currently: Host of T-Minus, the daily space intelligence podcast
Previously:
- Independent consultant specializing in content and social media marketing and communications
- Rapid7: Marketing Content Manager, Community Manager
- Sophos: Web Content Producer, Content and Social Media Project Manager
- Reed Elsevier: Associate Editor, Purchasing Magazine
Education: University of Massachusetts Amherst, B.A. in Journalism, summa cum laude, Kappa Tau Alpha award for excellence in journalism and mass communication
The longer story
My first college experience was engineering school, because my lifelong love of astronomy and space exploration led me to computer science. For two years I pursued my Bachelor of Science degree, but - very long story short - decided it wasn’t for me and decided to take a very different path.
When I left engineering school, I took my technical knowledge with me to pursue journalism. Quite a change, right? No knowledge is ever wasted though. While my career started in trade journalism and editorial work, I soon shifted over to corporate marketing and communications for B2B information security software companies, including Sophos and Rapid7, putting both my computer science and journalism studies to work.
My communications career started in more traditional corporate marketing and website development, but quickly expanded into audio and video production as well as social media strategy. When I started my Community Manager role at Rapid7, my role included supporting and learning from the information security community at events around the United States, from BlackHat and DEF CON to Derbycon and various BSides events around the country. (Chances are if we were at the same conference, we may have met at the lockpicking table.)
Once I decided to try my hand at freelance consulting for some time, I had the opportunity to give professional podcasting a try - first by being a frequent guest on shows, and then by moving into co-hosting gigs. Over time I was able to add professional podcast work to my work arsenal, and when N2K called me up about an opportunity to combine my lifelong love of all things space with a new podcast they were launching, I jumped at the opportunity. And that led me to T-Minus!
Whatever’s new, I love to try it out so I can honestly tell you what I think from hands-on experience. After all, the new shiny thing doesn’t always make sense to pursue, but when it does it’s a lot of fun. I love to take things apart to find out how they work. This is how I taught myself HTML in the 90s—by examining other websites and shaping the raw code into something of my own. Heck, I taught myself the basics of Hugo and coded this website too.
Not bad for only being half an engineer 😉
I love to ride my bicycle — I’m not training for the Tour de France, but you’ll find me out on bike paths when the weather’s right. I am unabashedly a big ol’ nerd and a geek for lots of things, especially Star Trek, but I promise not to be too annoying about it… unless you ask, then all bets are off.
As you might guess by my name, I’m American by way of two Greek immigrant parents. I’m happily married to my husband Eric, and mother to the most brilliant and rambunctious daughter in the universe. We live just outside of Boston, Massachusetts.