Maria Bendana is a research fellow for the Pinchot Institute primarily working on the Bay Bank program. Prior to joining the Pinchot Institute, she worked in the Ecosystem Marketplace program of Forest Trends and co-authored the first State of the Forest Carbon Markets report. Maria has also worked at the United Nations Secretariat in New York, the International Economic Development Council, the Office of the Governor's Delivery Unit in Maryland and was a graduate assistant for an immigrant's non profit at the University of Maryland. She holds a Master of Community Planning degree from the University of Maryland with a focus on international development. She speaks Spanish, French and English.