Maria is a public health nutritionist and Reader in health inequalities at Leeds Beckett University. Maria leads the Migrant Health Research group at Leeds Beckett, Chairs the University’s Race Equality Forum, and is a member of the Yorkshire & Humber Migrant Health Group. She is also the UK lead of a multidisciplinary and multiagency network addressing malnutrition, urban renewal and sustainable livelihoods among vulnerable women and their children in Ghana and Nigeria.

Her research approach combines epidemiological and sociological methods, shaped by a range of theoretical lenses including community-based participatory research, social justice, and socio-ecological theories. This approach also acknowledges the importance of class, gender, and wider social, economic, and environmental conditions which, taken together, shape differences in health status, health related behaviours and access to healthcare. Intersecting with this multiplicity of factors, the role of ethnic inequalities, as a key driver of health inequalities, is a central feature of her work. Her activities are built on community links established over time, providing access to wide-reaching networks that are trusted among their local populations.

Maria integrates her research into teaching and learning at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and she supervises several PhD students conducting projects among migrant/ ethnic minority populations in the UK and in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.