Maria Teresa Kumar
Named by Hispanic Magazine as one of the top Latinas in Government and Politics, Maria Teresa (Petersen) Kumar is the founding Executive Director of Voto Latino, a leading national civic engagement organization targeting acculturated American Latino youth. In the 2008 presidential election, Voto Latino leveraged social media and celebrity participation in five battleground states, all of which saw Latino voter participation increase 5% or more above the national average.
Voto Latino’s innovative web initiatives – including a tele-novela spoof that became an internet sensation – won two Webby Official Honoree awards and a MySpace Impact award. Voto Latino’s benefit album produced with Apple iTunes during the 2008 election was the top selling album on iTunes Latino for weeks. Today, Voto Latino is expanding its civic engagement to include issue based advocacy such as green jobs, education, health and the 2010 census.
Currently a MSNBC political analyst, Maria Teresa appeared regularly as a commentator during the 2008 election on MSNBC’s primary and general election night coverage. She was also a frequent guest on CNN’s AC 360 and American Morning, NPR, Telemundo and MSNBC’s Hardball. In addition to on-air appearances, Maria Teresa serves as an occasional blogger. She recently authored a chapter for Lifetime Network CEO Andrea Wong’s book “Secrets of Powerful Women.”
Maria Teresa started her career as a Legislative Aide for former Democratic Caucus Chairman Vic Fazio managing international trade issues and appropriations. She’s counseled Fortune 500 companies on political strategy and recently co-founded FastFWD Group, a boutique social media strategy firm whose clients include Levi’s, NBC Universal, and Planned Parenthood.
Harvard Law School, NetRoots, Personal Democracy Forum, Prudential and Tide’s Momentum are among the organizations that seek her to speak on social entrepreneurship, technology and electoral politics.
Maria Teresa is an Ambassador Swanee Hunt Prime Mover Fellow, a Women’s Media Center Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson Public Policy International Affairs Fellow. She is a recipient of numerous leadership awards including from The White House Project, Imagen Foundation and the New York Legislature. Last year, Washington Life magazine placed Maria Teresa on the cover of their issue highlighting the most influential Washingtonians under 40. She serves as a founding board member for both the Latino Leaders Network and Poder PAC.
Maria Teresa received a masters degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelors degree in international relations from the University California at Davis.
A native of Sonoma, California, Maria Teresa lives in Washington, DC with her husband Raj Kumar.
