Maria Dominguez Gray is the Class of 1955 Executive Director of the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA), a student led, community service nonprofit affiliated with Harvard College, where she has served on staff since 1999. Under Maria’s leadership, PBHA has furthered its mission to mobilize and develop over 1,500 student volunteers in partnership with Greater Boston’s under-resourced communities to address gaps in opportunities through year-round youth enrichment, adult education, housing, and organizing programs. Maria has additionally coached and supported 100’s of emerging human service leaders through PBHA’s Chan Stride Scholarship and Post Graduate program and supported the start-up of organizations including Strong Women, Strong Girls, Y2Y Network, and the Boston Worker’s Alliance. Before joining PBHA, Maria served for five years on the staff of City Year Boston as a Program and Service Director in the early years of AmeriCorps and worked at Concilio Hispano with young mothers in Chelsea.

Throughout her work in the Greater Boston area, Maria has been instrumental in several key community coalitions. She is a co-founder of the South End/Lower Roxbury Youth Worker Alliance and Mission Hill Youth Collaborative and advised the Academy, Bromley, Egleston Safety Task Force, Youth Jobs Coalition, and Boston Center for Youth and Families. Maria has additionally served on the boards of Cambridge Community Schools, Sociedad Latina, Project HIP HOP, the Friends of the Hernandez School, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter Corporation, and the Y2Y Network. She is a member of the Boston Public Schools long term financial planning committee and continued advocate for youth programs and public school funding. Maria is a recipient of the Cambridge NAACP “Tribute to Women” award and is a Project 351 Service Hero.

Maria received her B.A. from The College of William and Mary in Virginia and M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education through the Risk and Prevention program. She is a member of the 2010 cohort for Emerging Leaders with the UMass Center of Collaborative Leadership. Maria was born in Boston, grew up in Arlington, VA, and currently lives in Roxbury with her husband, Chris Gray and their children, Christopher José and Cecilia María.