Meet Max…

A donor-conceived therapist and social worker with a vision:

To co-create a world where banks, clinics, agencies, and professionals foresee and respond to the human impacts of donor conception beyond the cradle.

As a consultant & speaker, Max equips professionals and organizations to:

  • Improve patient and donor experiences

  • Increase diversity, cultural sensitivity, and equity

  • Respond to rapidly growing media attention and the need for lifelong support to DCP, parents, & donors

Dedicated to real change for real people.

In donor conception, I deeply believe that my wellbeing is tied to yours. That’s why my career has centered around supporting every person in the “donor conception constellation”:

  • Leading 60+ weeks of peer support for donor-conceived people (DCP) who are BIPOC, disabled, or LGBTQIA+

  • Delivering individual & group therapy to intended parents & pregnant people after pregnancy and infant loss

  • Educating family-building professionals through monthly webinars (and an Oxford textbook chapter on fertility care for gender-diverse patients)

  • Advocating for egg donors facing unethical business practices by clinics and banks

  • Creating resource guides for us all: DCP, parents, professionals, and donors

Systems thinking comes from my DNA.

I was 23 when I met the woman I’d always been told I could never know: my parents’ egg donor.

We’d wanted to know each other all along, and a system had kept us apart. The feeling of powerlessness in my gut was familiar. Donor conception industry norms shaped the course of my parents’ life, the donor’s life, and of course, my life.

Unable to find an Asian donor, my Chinese American parents conceived with eggs from a white donor. I couldn’t make sense of my multiracial appearance as I grew up. I didn’t even know the donor’s ethnicity; I had no records, and the clinic wouldn’t speak to me.

Amidst the anti-Asian hate of 2020, my struggle with identity drove me to co-create the community I needed. Piloting peer support groups for donor-conceived adults led me to develop resources and educate family-building professionals through monthly webinars.

Years of story after story from DCP, parents, donors, and professional allies taught me:

when policies and practices are not people-first, everyone pays a cost.

Let’s build a future no one has to crisis-manage.

For Professionals
For Organizations

Guiding Values

  • Donor conception includes supporting the child, not only having one.

    In all I do, I consider human impacts upon donor-conceived people (DCP), donors, parents, and professionals. I also center the autonomy, safety, and wellbeing of the most vulnerable: the human being created by the work.

  • DCP, donors, and parents deserve access to information and support so they can make informed decisions about their own lives.

    This includes updated family history, accurate donor information, informed consent, long-term implications, and culturally-inclusive care options.

  • Community knowledge is power. I invite diverse stakeholder perspectives, including those that conflict. Relationships with professionals, DCP, parents, and donors inform my work.

  • I learn a great deal from what’s going well, not just the problem. I respect and collaborate with experts and leaders already at work. We’ll avoid reinventing the wheel.

  • Mitigating risk means working with the root of the issue, not just symptoms. I see every client as part of a living whole, so I also consider impacts of any change throughout the organization or field.

  • I support LGBTQIA+ families, including practices, policies, and legislation that affirm their wellbeing and rights.

    I believe that financial resources, religion, disability, marital status, family structure, and other factors should not disqualify a person from becoming a parent or donor.