Maria Orozco

Maria Orozco is a partner in Bridgespan’s New York office. Since joining the firm in 2006, she has led a variety of nonprofit and foundation strategy engagements, with a focus on strategy and organizational development.

Maria has worked with a broad range of organizations, including an international educational media nonprofit, a civil rights organization advocating for Latino communities in the United States, a collaborative of funders coordinating community-wide investment in after-school programs, a multiservice organization supporting homeless women and families, and a legal advocacy organization focused on environmental justice. She also helped lead Bridgespan’s Nonprofit Practice, supporting client engagements, tool development, and research initiatives across the firm.

Maria has published research on nonprofit mergers and collaborations and was a coauthor of “Why Nonprofit Mergers Continue to Lag,” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2014). Maria was also a lead contributor to Bridgespan’s article, “Eight Steps for Managing through Tough Times,” (Bridgespan.org, 2019), which focused on helping nonprofit organizations navigate economic recessions, the loss of major funding support, and other disruptive challenges. In addition, she serves on the boards of Latinos for Education and the Hispanic Federation.

Most recently, Maria served as executive director of data and policy for Newark Public Schools, New Jersey’s largest public school district, serving more than 35,000 students. In addition to serving as a district leadership team member, she managed data systems, policy, and research efforts to support more effective data use across the district. Earlier in her career, Maria’s academic and professional work focused primarily on the nonprofit and education sectors. She published recommendations for improving higher education in Colombia and advised an innovative high school on improving college guidance services for Latino students. From 2003 to 2004, she was a program associate for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a nonprofit that brought a school funding lawsuit to New York’s highest court.

Maria holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School, with a concentration in human resources, labor, and education. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in art history and a certificate in Spanish languages and literature from Princeton University and was a recipient of the Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship.