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Maureen graduated with the James Bridie Gold Medal from what is now The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 1974 and has been working as an actress and director ever since. She was elected onto the Council of Equity, the entertainment workers union, in 2014. She became Vice-President in 2016 and this year became only the second woman to hold the office of President of the union. She is also the second Scot to do so.

Last year Maureen led Equity's Sexual Harassment Working Group which was formed in reaction to the devastating testimonies of sexual abuse in the entertainment industry. The resulting Agenda for Change report, the Safe Spaces campaign and the affirmation statement which Equity is asking all practitioners to read aloud at the beginning of every new project, are making a real difference to the working lives of people in the industry.

Maureen made her maiden speech at the TUC annual conference in September. Speaking about the people who shared their stories with the working group she said, "Many of these testimonies were shocking and distressing, as are those of the world famous performers who have come forward with enormous courage to add their personal stories to the great movement for change. But when the media spotlight finally runs out of headlines and moves on to the next big thing, and the perpetrators of this kind of behaviour crawl back out from the shadows Equity will still be there, in it for the long haul, along with our fellow unions."

As an actress Maureen has received a Herald Angel, a Herald Archangel, a PYE Radio Award, a Manchester Evening News Award, two Stage Awards and a Special Citation Obie. Each of the one-woman plays in the Jennifer Tremblay Trilogy she performed with Stellar Quines Theatre Company won a Scotsman Fringe First."