Who is Maia Chaka? NFL Hires First Black Female Official

Another woman is making history in the NFL. One month after Sarah Thomas became the first female referee to work a Super Bowl, Maia Chaka has been named the league’s first Black female official.

During the week, Chaka is a health and physical education teacher at Renaissance Academy in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She’s been working with at-risk youths for the past decade and soon will be working nationally televised football games on Sundays.

“He goes, ‘Welcome to the National Football League,’ and I just went nuts,” Chaka saind on NBC’s “TODAY” show Friday morning, describing the phone call she received Monday that informed her of the news. “I asked him, ‘Hey are you punking me, you’ve gotta be kidding me,’ because I’ve been at for so long I just never thought the day would come. I just enjoyed working.”

Chaka has been officiating football games for 15 years, starting at the high-school level. She worked a nationally televised game on ESPNU in 2012.

In 2009, Chaka was named the Virginia Beach Central Academy Reading Teacher of the Year.

Chaka eventually moved up to college football, working Conference USA and Pac-12 games. In 2014, she became the first female, along with Thomas, to officiate an FBS bowl game.

Both Chaka and Thomas became part of the NFL Officiating Development Program seven years ago. Thomas was hired to ref NFL games in 2015. Now, Chaka will join her.

“If you have a passion for something or you have the drive for something, don’t let it hold you back just because you think that something may give you some type of limitation,” Chaka told “TODAY.”

In addition to the first female referee in a Super Bowl, the 2020 NFL season featured eight female coaches on the sidelines during games.