Maxine Wallin is one of Edina’s foremost community philanthropists. A librarian by training, she values education and founded Wallin Education Partners with her husband Win in 1992. What started as a scholarship program for 14 students has grown into a nonprofit offering scholarships with a support framework, creating a nationally respected college completion program. Uniquely, the first scholarships targeted “C” students because the Wallins recognized that while cost was a barrier to college access, there was also a dearth of scholarships aimed at those who weren’t earning top grades. The focus started at South High School in Minneapolis and now offers scholarships to students from 38 Twin Cities-area high schools.
Wallin valued her time at the University of Minnesota where the family name graces the Wallin Medical Biosciences Building and the Wallin Research Center in the Andersen Library. With a 75-year span of community philanthropy and volunteerism, she’s won accolades including the Katherine Phelps Lifetime Achievement Award (2013) for her work in the Junior League of Minneapolis; and, along with Win, received the Edgar M. Carlson Award (1997) from Minnesota’s Private Colleges.
Wallin has enjoyed working for a cause, hearing the speeches, attending the breakfasts and serving alongside others on the Edina Community Foundation Board of Directors and on the boards of the Hennepin County Library Foundation, the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, Presbyterian Homes, the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, the Junior League of Minneapolis, Planned Parenthood and the Minnesota Orchestra.
Contributed by the Edina Community Foundation; edinacommunityfoundation.org
