Maisie Chin is an independent consultant specializing in strategy and process related to the participation of marginalized voices and designing conditions for authentically self-empowered leadership development. Recently transitioned, Maisie devoted nearly 23 years as the co-founder and eventual founding executive director of Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE), an independent, grassroots parent membership organization in South Los Angeles, California comprised of Black and Latinx parents and caregivers whose mission is to solidify and advance parent leadership so that all children are rightfully educated regardless of where they live. A native Californian and first child of Chinese immigrants, Maisie is a well-trained and seasoned facilitative leader who has been in the social justice movement for nearly 30 years and is dedicated to eliminating structural racism. As the co-designer of an innovative approach to catalyzing parent participation, Maisie simultaneously pioneered an organizational model that invests in grassroots parents long-term to lead their own self-empowerment as well as produced groundbreaking systemic changes towards racial and educational justice. Through her work at CADRE, Maisie co-led numerous efforts that have successfully changed school discipline policy, significantly reduced student suspensions, decriminalized schools through parent-led policy change and monitoring, and redefined parent participation in educational justice in Los Angeles, California and nationally. A committed movement builder, Maisie, on CADRE’s behalf, co-founded the national Dignity in Schools Campaign and one of its chapters, Dignity in Schools Campaign – California. Prior to opening CADRE with co-founder Rosalinda Hill in 2001, Maisie served for two years as program manager at Public Allies-Los Angeles, supporting the personal and professional development of young adults entering the nonprofit sector seeking to effect community-based change. This role was preceded by six years as the first staff person and eventual associate director for Los Angeles Partners Advocating Student Success (LA PASS), the Los Angeles site of a national, 16-city Ford Foundation initiative focused on increasing college graduation rates through K-16 cross-system collaboration. Maisie is a board member of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, and recently concluded a decade of board service with the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and previously with the Justice Matters Institute. Maisie is a 2018 graduate of the Pahara-Aspen Fellowship. Maisie holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).