Maria Solis is a 2024-2025 Illinois Policy Fellow and an English as a second language (ESL) and senior seminar teacher at Benito Juarez Community Academy in Chicago, Illinois. She leads her school’s English department as its chair and works on instructional practices and policies as the co-lead to the school’s Instructional Leadership Team. Maria’s first exposure to education was thanks to the Golden Apple Foundation, having been selected a Scholar (2013). She recently served as an Education Pioneer Fellow, where she researched and worked on Chicago Public Schools policies. Maria earned her BS in secondary education and BA in English, as well as a bilingual and ESL teaching credential from Loyola University Chicago, and an MEd in educational leadership with a concentration in policy studies from The University of Illinois at Chicago.
