Maria Cimini is a social worker whose professional and personal work focus on policy and advocacy.  She is the Director of the Rhode Island Office of Healthy Aging where she works to amplify the voices of older adults, identify gaps in services and create opportunities for older adults and their caregivers, and leads a team responsible for investigating elder abuse and self-neglect, connecting seniors to home care services, and building community partnerships to support the nutrition, caregiver, health promotion, and connection of older adults throughout RI. Prior to joining the Governor’s Cabinet as the Director of the Office of Healthy Aging, Maria served as the Associate Director of Policy at the RI Department of Human Services where she was responsible for policy related to state and federal public assistance programs including: SNAP, TANF, Refugee Cash, Child Care Assistance, State Supplemental Payment, among others.  As a member of DHS leadership, she also oversaw community engagement, notices, on-line community access and mobile applications. Prior to joining state service, in the non-profit sector she spent 15 years working to create systems to move people experiencing homelessness to housing, expand SNAP access, and provide direct services to low-income families.  For over a decade Maria has been an adjunct faculty member at RI College where she teaches taught policy analysis within the School of Social Work.  Maria was elected to the RI House of Representatives in 2010 and served two terms there.  She has BA in Political Science and Masters of Social Work from Rhode Island College and lives in Cranston, RI with her family.