Maria P. Hernandez, M.A.

Maria P. Hernandez is the Founder & Executive Director of VELA, a nonprofit organization based in Austin Texas. Maria started the organization in 2011 to provide English and Spanish-speaking parents with hands-on courses, support, and community so that all families could create the very best outcomes for their child with disabilities. Before creating VELA, Maria worked as a bilingual speech and language pathologist across the school and clinical settings providing services to children with disabilities ages 0-21. Her incredible papa has multiple sclerosis and her brilliant brother has dyslexia- different has been her normal. In 2006, Maria completed a MA in Communications Sciences in Disorders at UT Austin and has a BA in Hearing and Speech Sciences from the University of Maryland at College Park. She sits on multiple local and national advisory committees and is a Pahara Aspen NextGen Fellow. Maria is originally from Bogota, Colombia.