Director, Cooperative Development Program
Center for Family Life
Maru Bautista is the Director of the Cooperative Development Program at the Center for Family Life in Brooklyn, New York. For the past six years, she has worked with her team and the Sunset Park community to strengthen and scale immigrant-led worker cooperatives in New York City. Most notably, Maru has supported the development of the Brightly franchise and Up & Go. Maru has served on the board of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives for the past four years, and on the board of the Democracy at Work Institute since 2016. Maru is originally from Puebla, Mexico. She moved to Brooklyn eight years ago to pursue a master’s degree in International Development from the New School. Loving all things cooperative, Maru’s family is in a babysitting cooperative, she sends her 3-year old daughter to a worker-owned daycare, she is a member of a food cooperative, and has a car-sharing agreement with a friend. Maru is a firm believer in collaboration as the only path forward!