Board Members
On January 14, 2026, Maria D. Quiñones Sánchez was appointed to a three-year term on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board by Governor Josh Shapiro.
Maria is a proven leader who has dedicated her thirty year career to public service in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As the first Latina elected to Philadelphia’s City Council, Maria was elected to represent the 7th Council District in 2007. During her council tenure, she championed good government reforms, transparency and accountability. Maria served as Chair of Council’s Committee on Appropriations and Committee on Education. She co-chaired Council’s Special Committee on Poverty Reduction and Prevention, and in 2021, was appointed to the Philadelphia Tax Reform Working Group. Her impact as a leader and legislator touched every facet of the city’s operations from budget planning and tax reform to land use innovation and public space protection and improvements. She fought for and won hundreds of millions in restorative investments in historically underserved communities.
Driven by her unwavering passion for helping the most vulnerable people, she has unmatched expertise and wisdom from decades in the trenches of Philadelphia government. She’s known for tackling impossibly complex problems, uniting leaders with opposing views, and getting things done. Maria was re-elected to a total of four terms on City Council before resigning in 2022 to launch her historic bid for Mayor of Philadelphia.
At six months old, Maria migrated to North Philadelphia from Puerto Rico with her mother. Growing up in Hunting Park, Maria began her life’s work of empowering her neighbors and fighting for grassroots social change. Her public service career began as an aide in the office of Councilwoman Marian Tasco, and included increasingly senior positions as a Deputy City Commissioner and later as Regional Director for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration. Maria also has extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, where she started as a student organizer and then worked as a consultant and before taking the role of Executive Director of ASPIRA at 27, where she steered the organization through major financial restructuring and founded the Commonwealth’s first bilingual charter school. Maria also helped form a statewide Latino coalition to train Latino candidates to run for office, lobby Congress to increase representation, and advocate for Latino issues.
Following her historic campaign for Mayor of Philadelphia in 2023, Maria served as a leader of Mayor Parker’s transition team. In her current role, Maria is a principal with Maven Inc., where she brings her decades of knowledge and expertise to work with a diverse client portfolio, bridging the gap between leaders and their communities.
Maria and her husband, Tomas Sánchez, raised their family in Norris Square and now reside in Bala Cynwyd.