[1] Maria Lee was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. She grew up in a family of seven, with her mother being a stay-at-home-mom, and her father, a tile installer.
[3] Lee's teaching career led her to Tennessee, to a Christian school in Nashville, where she taught for 14 years.
Along with being a third and fourth grade educator, Lee was also a coach for the school's softball, track and field, and cross-country teams.
She currently is on the board of the Friend2Friend Book Project, an organization that delivers literature to children and their families suffering from health issues.
They attend Grace Chapel Church and have been on multiple mission trips, including building houses in Mexico and working in a Haitian orphanage.