Maria Teresa Petersen
Voto Latino, Executive Director

Named by Hispanic Magazine as among the top Latinas in Government and Politics, Maria Teresa Petersen is the founding Executive Director of Voto Latino. Voto Latino is a youth organization founded by actress Rosario Dawson seeking to alvanize the fastest growing eligible voting block in America. Under Maria Teresa's leadership, Voto Latino launched the first ever national mobile texting campaign to register voters in 2006, has produced award winning Public Service Announcements, and reaching over 55 million households.

Prior to Voto Latino, Maria Teresa founded Petersen Advisory and served as a political consultant to several clients including: Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Accenture, National Latino Council of Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention, Mickey Ibarra & Associates, and AT&T. She started her career as a Legislative Aide for former Democratic Caucus Chairman Vic Fazio managing international trade issues and appropriations.

Maria Teresa has appeared in several media outlets including CNBC, NPR, CNN Español, and Fox News as a political analyst. She serves as a post-primary election coverage analyst for MSNBC and is a frequent guest on Chris Matthew’s Hardball. Maria Teresa serves as Newsweek’s Annual Women’s Advisory Committee. Maria Teresa travels across country as a speaker at national conferences focusing on social entrepreneurship and Latino issues.

Maria Teresa is a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy International Affairs Fellow, a National Hispana Leadership Institute Fellow, an Advisory Board member of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and a founding board member of the Latino Leader's Network. Maria Teresa holds a Masters from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelors from University California at Davis in international economics