María de Lourdes Vaello-Calderón

María de Lourdes Vaello-Calderón (she/her) is a staff attorney in the Housing Rights practice. She is a human rights lawyer and community advocate, having worked at the intersection of the right to housing and disaster recovery in her native Puerto Rico. María’s work centers on achieving land justice and fighting disaster capitalism through direct legal support, legal education, and community advocacy to push for systemic changes and highlight racial inequities in the aftermath of major disasters. María received her JD from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law and her BA in Journalism from the University of Puerto Rico School of Communications. María was awarded the 2022 Law for Black Lives Fellowship to train in movement lawyering principles and strengthen abolitionist and decolonial infrastructures in her community. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.