Sandra Maura

Biography

Born in Santiago, Chile, on January 10, 1945, Sandra came to the U.S. in 1945, when her father, Leonard Hugo Price, resumed work at the U.S. State Department after his deployment to Chile by the Board of Economic Warfare to Chile during WWII.

In 1955, when Sandra’s father, then head of the Caribbean desk at the State Department, was assigned to Havana Cuba as First Secretary and Commercial Attache, Sandra attended LaFayette School for a year and then Ruston Academy from 1956 to 1961.

When her father was re-assigned to Ottawa, Sandra and her family moved to Canada and resided in Rockcliffe Park, a suburb of Ottawa. Sandra graduated from Lisgar Collegiate High School and then attended a year at Katherine Gibbs School in Boston before entering St. Lawrence University as a sophomore in 1965. In 1966 to 1967, Sandra took her junior year abroad at the University of Madrid.

While on vacation in Spain, Sandra met Peter Kubina, a German artist working on Ibiza. She returned to the U.S., where Peter soon joined her and they married in Ft. Lauderdale on January 5, 1968. They had their child, Leif Tate Kubina, on May 25, 1970.

Peter, Sandra, and Leif spent eight months in Mexico, where Peter studied pre-Columbian art. They then returned to Florida and creating an art studio for Peter in Coral Gables while Sandra worked for as a waitress and as a volunteer with Child and Family Services.

Peter and Sandra divorced amicably on June 28, 1973. On July 7, 1973, Sandra married Michael Maura. They had their child, Luke Maura, on July 22, 1974. Michael and Sandra divorced five years later, on June 18, 1980.

Sandra moved to Santa Cruz California. In 1981, when Luke had finished high school, Sandra, after working for eleven years as a Health Clerk in a nurse’s office at Branciforte Jr. High School, returned to school at the University of California Santa Cruz. On June 18, 1993, she graduated with honors in her major, psychology, and received her B.A. (Psych) at U.C.S.C.

After helping our mother move from Florida to California, Sandra entered San Jose University’s College of Social Work on August 25, 1994. After completing her studies and working as a volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) to a 5-6-year-old first grader in foster care, Sandra worked from September 1995 to May 1996, as a social work intern at Adult, Family, and Children’s Services. On May 24, 1996, she received her Master of Social Work degree from San Jose State University.

In 1998, upon completing two years of employment with Child Protective Services to comply with a term of her student assistance while in her MSW program, Sandra began caring for our mom at her home in Santa Cruz until mom’s death on January 27, 2002.

On November 10, 2003, after completing 3200 hours of supervision and passing a written and oral exam, Sandra received her license as a Clinical Social Worker from the Board of Behavioral Sciences of the State of California. She then obtained employment as a clinical social worker at the Parents Center, where she continued working until her retirement at age 65 in 2010 to focus on her spiritual development as a student of Yoga from Baba Haridas at Mt. Madonna outside Santa Cruz, and to spend more time with her sons, Leif and Luke, and their families.