Dr. Santana is an Associate Professor and Director of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Central Florida where she teaches the graduate course Global Women in Crisis (WST 5186) for the Women's and Gender Studies program. For her Global Women in Crisis class, she is formulating the module Motherhood/Families using original interviews done while in country to World War II survivors and the Module War/ Peace and Rape with her research on WWII visual chronicles of women's roles as depicted in war propaganda posters. Dr. Santana's passion for Women and Gender Studies continue outside the collegiate classroom as she is the director of the Young Women Leaders Program, a program that mentors thirteen year old girls. Dr. Santana is an international communication expert fusing media and women's issues.

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Dr. Maria Santana is the Director of the Women's and Gender Studies program and the Co-Principal Investigator for the Fulbright-Hays GPA to Russia. Her special interest for the Fulbright-Hays is studying the grassroots efforts of female Russian activists in the 20th century, in addition to the studying and documentation of women who defended Moscow during World War II and their stories.