Maxine Jimenez was born in San Pablo City, Laguna in the Philippines. At the age of 8, they moved to a small, tight-knit community called Highland Park in Northeast Los Angeles. Maxine is now a 4th-year Community Studies major, Politics minor.

When Maxine was in high school, they became an Action Fellow with the Alliance for Climate Education where they organized community clean-ups, tree planting events, tree giveaways, climate justice events, as well as lobbied local and state legislators to support climate policies. In college, Maxine organized a 10-week speaker series led by young climate justice activists of color and facilitated a course on addressing gentrification, sustainability, and green building. They are continuing their education by taking courses on permaculture in hopes to make gardening and farming more accessible to communities of color facing food apartheid.