Director of this Charity, she led the successful Parents Campaign for a Public Inquiry into the children's heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, negotiating with the Health Secretary and Department of Health in 1998. Maria acted as an advisor to the parents' legal team during the oral hearings of the enquiry. In all her work initially with the Bristol Heart Children Action Group and later in setting up Constructive Dialogue for Clinical Accountability (CDCA), Maria has been concerned to develop dialogue about the issues which lie underneath the inevitable emotions involved in parenting or caring for a child with a life-threatening condition and to move from oppositional conflict to constructive dialogue. This stance and her in-depth knowledge and networking have led to CDCA working in an active partnership with the British Paediatric Cardiac Association and the Children's Heart Federation to produce the first guide to care standards for children's heart Services.

Maria was a member of the Paediatric & Congenital Cardiac Services Review Group and formed part of the Department of Health Review Team which carried out a review of all paediatric cardiac units in the UK. She is a member of the External Working Group for the National Service Framework focusing on Children's acute/Hospital Services. More recently Maria has been invited to join the Paediatric Cardiac Project Board through the NHS IA which oversees the work of the Centralised Cardiac Audit Database. Maria graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1980. She holds a diploma in NHS Management and a certificate in Death and Dying from the OU and an FAETC in Communication Skills.