María Julia Muñoz (born February 3, 1950) is a Uruguayan doctor in medicine and politician. She served as Minister of Public Health from 2005 to 2010 and as Minister of Education and Culture between 2015 and 2020. Biography María Julia Muñoz graduated in 1975 with a medical degree and specialized in infectious diseases in 1980. In 1983 she received the title of specialist in Public Health, and six years later, in 1989, the title of specialist in Epidemiology. Over the course of nearly 20 years, she was an educator in the Department of Preventative and Social Medicine within the College of Medicine at the Universidad de la República, in Montevideo, Uruguay. During her teaching career she became an Assistant Professor before leaving in order to dedicate herself to politics. Muñoz has served in politics since the age of 16 and joined the Frente Amplio, or Broad Front, a center-left political party of Uruguay. Within the Broad Front, she originally participated in the Vertiente Artiguista, a social democratic political sector, which was led by the politician and architect Mariano Arana, who was also the former Secretary of Housing, Mayor of Montevideo, and Senator of the Republic. In the internal elections of 2009, Muñoz formed her own approval list, including the presidential candidate Marcos Carámbula, alongside Víctor Rossi. Political Action Mayorship of Montevideo In 1990, she began working in the Municipal City Council of Montevideo, in charge of Mayor Tabaré Vázquez, in succession as Directora de División de Alimentación, Prosecretaria General and Directora General de Recursos Humanos y Materiales. When Mariano Arana worked as Mayor during 1995–2004, Muñoz worked as Secretary General of the Mayorship (Secretaria General de la Intendencia). In August 2011, the district attorney Diego Pérez asked for the imprisonment of Muñez, arguing that under her direction as Secretary General of the Mayorship of Montevideo she facilitated the actions carried out by the Director de Casinos, Juan Carlos Bengoa, who in turn was accused in 2007. The request was, however, dismissed just three months later (in November 2011) by the judge Fanny Canessa under the consideration that there was not sufficient evidence that supported the accusation. Ministration in Public Health In May 2004, the secretary assumed the position of Gerente General of the most important benefit society of Uruguay (approximately 260,000 members), the CASMU, also known as the Centro de Asistencia del Sindicato Médico del Uruguay. Muñoz was in charge