Maria Cardona

Synopsis

Founder of Mestizoinovations, Maria Cardona currently serves at the Dewey Square Group (DSG) as its principal leading the Multicultural and Public Affairs practices. She was one of the top 100 most influential Latinos in 2012. She is a seasoned public policy advocate and political strategist spending more than two decades in the areas of government, politics, public relations and community affairs. Maria is also a political commentator for CNN and CNN en Espanol.

Early Life

Maria Cardona was born on November 12, 1966, in Bogota, Colombia. Her family moved to the United States when she was only two years old. She grew up in Leesburg, Florida. She has graduated from Duke University. She is a Latin descendant and has an American nationality.

Career

Maria Cardona started her career after her graduation working as Deputy Press Secretary to Secretary Ronald H. Brown. After the death of Ronald H. Brown in an airplane crash, she became the Press Secretary to Secretaries William Daley and Mickey Kantor. She received the Department of Commerce’s Silver Medal Award for Meritorious Federal Service in 1997.

Maria served for the United States Department of Justice’s Immigration and Neutralization Service (INS) as the Director of Communications from 1998 to 2001 and from 2001 to 2003 as Communications Director for the Democratic National Committee till 2003. Later in 2003, Maria Cardona joined the New Democratic Network as their Vice President for Media Relations.

In 2005, Maria Cardona joined in Dewey Square Group as its principal and launched the Latinovations to advocate on Latino issues and helping the Latino or Hispanic community to support their positions, brands and products. Still being at DSG, she served as a Senior Advisor to Hillary Clinton for Presidential Campaign.

Maria Cardona joined CNN Network in October 2011 for the 2012 presidential election season as a political contributor. She is currently a board member of numerous organizations that works for Latino issues such as Hoops Sagrado, New America Media, Citizenship Counts, Poder Pac, Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino.

Having been involved in numerous different governmental and non-governmental projects and organizations, Maria Cardona earns a very high salary and has a very high net worth though the exact amount is not disclosed.

Personal Life

Maria Cardona is an amalgamation of beauty with brain. Blessed with a gracious personality and amazing talent, she is an icon for many women around the globe. Maria is in her fifties. She is a married woman. She is married to her husband Bryan Weaver who is a community activist. She is blessed with two children. The couple is living happily with their children in Washington, D.C.