Doris Judith Maynard was born in
Brooklyn, New York, on May 4, 1958, to Elizabeth Rosen and Robert C. Maynard, a journalist and the later co-owner of
The Oakland Tribune. Maynard was the only child of Elizabeth and Robert, who divorced in 1963. As a teenager, Maynard worked at a regional fast-food restaurant to earn money, and traveled to Africa before applying to college. After graduating, she went on to report for
The Patriot Ledger in
Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1989, she moved to Detroit, and worked for the
Detroit Free Press, where her reporting focused on politics and poverty. After receiving the prestigious
Nieman Fellowship, a year-long journalism program at
Harvard University, Maynard moved to the Boston area in 1992. Maynard served on the board of the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Foundation beginning in 1999, which renamed their Diversity Leadership Program after her in 2015. She was also a board member of the American Society of News Editors, where she was posthumously recognized with a scholarship through the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. == Accolades ==