Maria Astudillo

Maria Astudillo, is a Chilean immigrant who came to the USA over 40 years ago with a scholarship to complete her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. Maria chose to remain in the United States since her home country was under military rule.

She began her professional career at the Mount Sinai’s Adolescent Health Center, during that time she ran groups and provided individual therapy to adolescent girls with histories of sexual abuse.  She also worked at the NYU Child Study Center where she provided services to survivors of 9/11. At that time, she also worked with The American Red Cross providing group therapy in Spanish to the families of workers who died in the WTC attacks.  

Maria worked for 11 years at the Children’s Aid Society where she reached the position of Deputy Director of Mental Health Services, overseeing mental health programs in school-based clinics, foster care and community mental health clinics.  Currently, she is the Assistant Executive Director for Health Services at Forestdale Inc, a foster care agency in Queens and has a private practice focused on clinical supervision.

Maria is a proud single parent by choice of a 22 years old son, an advocate of children’s mental health services and works as a pro bono consultant/ trainer with The Young Center a non-profit organization that services unaccompanied immigrant youth.  In her free time, she loves to travel.