Cara Santa Maria is a North Texas native who currently lives in Los Angeles. Prior to moving to the west coast, she taught biology and psychology courses to university undergraduates and high school students in Texas and New York. Her published research has spanned various topics, including clinical psychological assessment, the neuropsychology of blindness, neuronal cell culture techniques, and computational neurophysiology. Most recently, she explored the mechanisms underlying adult neurogenesis in Taeniopygia guttata (the zebra finch).

Cara has a passion for science education, making it her mission to ensure that the fascination she feels for the natural world is accessible to as many people as possible. She has appeared on Larry King Live (CNN), Parker/Spitzer (CNN), Geraldo at Large (Fox News), and I Kid (TLC). She also co-produced and hosted a science talk show pilot for HBO. Recently, she co-hosted an episode of StarTalk Radio with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.