Maya Rodriguez
Maya Rodriguez is the Chief of Staff for Illinois State Robert Peters, covering the Lakefront from Streeterville to her home of the East Side. She focuses on supporting the Senator in outreach and organizational work, particularly in the areas of labor and economic justice, public safety, and environmental justice.
She holds a M.A. in Sociology from Columbia University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Chicago. She is a proud 3rd generation Mexican-American, coming from a strong union family.
In 2018 after graduating with her undergraduate degree with a desire to be hands-on in her community, she joined the Southeast Youth Alliance (SYA) and headed their digital outreach and social media presence. She continued this work while pursuing her M.A., focusing on mutual aid and social movements and the use of social media during 2020, and maintained the active online presence of the youth voice and activism during the Stop General Iron campaign as well as other movement campaigns in the city. These experiences, along with professional work in higher education DEI at the University of Chicago and youth organizing at the Alliance of the SouthEast, led her to focus her professional path on state government and local political campaign work in Illinois.
Maya is passionate about supporting her neighborhood and other communities of color and is dedicated to intentional work in uniting them in pushing for progressive change. In her spare time, she mentors other young women and women of color in her sorority Pi Beta Phi, and spends time at the lake and city parks with her friends and family.
