Dr. Maike Schaefer was born in 1971 and grew up in central Germany. After an Au-Pair year in London, she moved to Bremen to study biology at the University of Bremen. Afterward, she worked as a research officer at the Centre for Environmental Research and Technology in the area of environmental chemical risk assessment, where she also earned her doctorate in 2004. Maike Schaefer was voted into Bremen’s Parliament in 2007. She was the eco-political speaker of her party for twelve years and has been chairperson of Bremen’s Green Party since 2015. In August 2019, Maike Schaefer became the Minister for Climate Protection, the Environment, Mobility, Urban and Housing Development for the city-state of Bremen.