MacLean worked as a junior high school teacher and was involved in the real estate business. MacLean served on the North Slope Borough Assembly and on the North Slope School Board. She was a Democrat. MacLean served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1989 until her resignation on January 12, 1996, due to health problems. Before that she was on the executive board of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. MacLean was also an executive director of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.
