​Representative Maxine Dexter grew up in Bothell, WA. When Maxine was in 5th grade, her teacher asked her where she wanted to go to college, and she didn’t know what that was. No one in her family had ever gone to college. At that moment, she decided she was going to be a doctor one day, and never looked back.

When she was 16, she got a union job at an Albertsons grocery store where she earned a good wage and full benefits. This allowed her to leave home and work her way through the rest of high school, college, and into medical school with that same job. Her community, along with government support, gave her the opportunity to succeed in life. 

Maxine is now a pulmonary (lung) and critical care doctor, working at Kaiser Permanente. She takes care of the sickest patients in the hospital, people on life support, and people with COVID19. Through her work, it has become clear that our healthcare system is broken, and needs frontline healthcare providers in Salem to help fix it. ​

Maxine and her husband, Rob, live in Portland with their two children. Outside of the legislature and the hospital, she has been an involved parent activist in the Portland Public Schools system, a Trustee on the Tualatin Hills Park Foundation, and previously served on the Northwest Permanente board for six years, with more than two of those years as Chair of the Board. Maxine was appointed to serve in the Oregon House of Representatives in June, 2020, and was elected for her first term during the 2020 November election. ​