[5] Formerly Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science & Technology at Bournemouth University,[1] she was the first Chief Scientist of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, retiring in 2022.

[6] Maggs graduated with a Botany degree from St Catherine's College, Oxford in 1978[1] and a PhD from National University of Ireland, Galway in 1983.

[1][5] Maggs worked as a postdoc at the Atlantic Research Laboratory, Nova Scotia, Canada and Queen's University Belfast (the latter on an Advanced Natural Environment Research Council Fellowship), before taking up a post as a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast in 1995.

Professor Maggs led the Queen's University Belfast School of Biological Sciences application for an Athena SWAN Gold Award.

[26] This successful application made Queen's University Belfast the recipient of only the third departmental Athena SWAN Gold award.