Maggie Lin grew up in the foster care system in Los Angeles County from age 10 to emancipation at age 18. Her childhood was fraught with abuse and neglect as she was born to a young mother, and her father was murdered when she was 2 years old. In her time with the system, she moved through 6 different placements, while her younger sister moved through 9 placements. In her last foster home, she had an incredible mentor that helped her realize she had high potential and was capable of attending college. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and a Minor in Asian, Middle Eastern Languages and Literature from Dartmouth College in 2011.

Since graduation, she has worked with Nobel Laureate Dr. Rajendra Pachauri at the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change (United Nations) and ended up living in India for nearly 4 years with that role. She has also worked as a Dartmouth Fellow for a software technology company fighting counterfeit drugs in Southeast Asia, as well as director of strategic partnerships for other technology startups in Los Angeles. Her experience overseas brought her back to Los Angeles, where she worked at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for a short stint in the Foundation department. This was where she was introduced to Jeanne Pritzker (Pritzker Foster Care Initiative), who empowered her to use her life experiences to shed light on those still struggling in the system.

The mission of Foster Nation is to support and empower foster youth aging out of the system to become self-sufficient adults. Maggie helped to co-found Foster Nation with the goal of engaging and rallying millennials to support and care for their peers with lived experience in the system. Since inception, she has led a Collective of 15 to 30 members every year–made up of professionals who are committed to making a difference in the foster care landscape.

She has worked as a strategy consultant with other nonprofits and social impact companies in Los Angeles including Beauty Bus, Kara Love Project, Vie, and Arixa Capital. Maggie has spoken on various foster youth higher education convenings and panels, and she personally mentors foster youth interns and volunteers.