Maria Peterson was named Director of Utah Correctional Industries in February 2020.

A former broadcast journalist, Peterson began her corrections career in 2007 as a Communications Consultant with the Washington Department of Corrections. While there, she served as the agency’s first Internal Communications Manager, developing innovative internal communication strategies, messages and tactics to engage the department’s 8,000 employees.

Peterson moved to Utah to serve as the Utah Department of Corrections’ Public Information Officer in 2016, assuming responsibility for all media relations, constituent responses, community relations and offender family member communication. In 2018, she was appointed Deputy Director of UCI. In 2020 Peterson was appointed Director of UCI.