[6][7] As a teenager, Maynard worked at a regional fast-food restaurant to earn money, and traveled to Africa before applying to college.

[9] After receiving the prestigious Nieman Fellowship, a year-long journalism program at Harvard University, Maynard moved to the Boston area in 1992.

[6] After her father's death in 1993, she edited and published a posthumous collection of his newspaper columns with introductory essays by herself, titled Letters to My Children.

[11][1][12] 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.

[13] 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.