Maria has been a voluntary police chaplain since 2017, supporting first response teams in Woking and Godalming. Her professional background has included work as a Geoscientist [Rio Tinto, Schlumberger]and later as a Systems Engineer [SGI, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Cray Supercomputers and AWS] specialising in High Performance Computing which underpins technologies integral to AI, genomic sequencing, cybersecurity, financial trading, defence, drug design, weather prediction and more. She authored papers on the use of AI in Covid diagnostics and treatment at the start of the pandemic. In 2021, prompted by the incidence of suicides in young officers, she initiated internal research in AI to gather initial sentiment from 200 officers on the use of AI to complement pastoral care, the surprising outcome of which she presented at the Chaplain’s Hope Conference in 2024.
In 2022, she became an OK9 dog handler and regularly visits stations throughout Surrey with her Labrador, Murphy for wellbeing and memorial events.
Maria is a committed Buddhist and volunteers at her local temple [30 years] She is on the administrative committee in roles such as Secretary and Chairperson, assisting with key ceremonies and public events and often being the bridge between the Council and the temple.
Recently, Maria is being requested to undertake more generic meditation for disparate teams such as Serious Crime [Woking] and Corporate Comms [MB], particularly during difficult events or workloads. At their request she has been asked to conduct these sessions more frequently.
Her professional experience is diverse and has taken her to many countries in the Middle East and Africa to live and work. It has also exposed her to commercial and public sectors as described above. This breadth of experience distils into her role as Chaplain in the provision of greater empathy and care.
Serving as a Trustee represents a natural extension of Maria’s long-standing commitment to pastoral care, public service, and organisational contribution. She is motivated by a desire to support the strategic development and sustainability of police chaplaincy, particularly at a time when officer wellbeing, moral injury, and organisational pressures are increasingly complex.
