Dr. Elaine Johnson founded Bio-Link in 1998. She was a champion of STEM education and a long-time board member of BioLink Depot. Learn more about her here.

By 2006, the Depot had grown from an informal exchange into a functioning distribution center, matching a steady stream of donated lab equipment with under-resourced classrooms across the Bay Area. As demand grew, 2011 brought the publication of an Equipment Depot Resource Guide, helping formalize how the organizaiton operated and shared its model. In 2013, a dedicated Advisory Committee was formed to help guide the Depot’s next chapter.

That next chapter arrived in 2015/2016, when BioLink Depot officially incorporated as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit - stepping out from under CCSF’s institutional umbrella after more than a decade of operating as a grant-supported program. Originally based in San Francisco, with additional facilities at various points near SFO and in Palo Alto, the organization eventually found a permanent home in Oakland, CA.

Today, BioLink Depot operates from its location at 9235 San Leandro Street in Oakland, rescuing professional-grade scientific equipment and supplies headed for landfills from industry companies, academic labs and other sources and redistrubting them, completely free, to STEM educators across California. In 2025 alone, 340 STEM educators from 25 counties traveled to the Oakland site for free materials, benefiting roughly 130,000 students - most in under-resourced schools - through $1.3 million in donated lab materials from 99 Bay Area companies and institutions.