Margarita Gandia

Margarita Gandia is a fierce advocate for gender and LGBTQ justice. Margarita was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States in 1966 together with her immediate family, settling in northern California. After receiving a B.A. in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley, she began her career in information technology. She headed information technology organizations in both the oil and gas industry and in the financial services industry and held multiple other management positions.

Margarita currently devotes most of her time to volunteer service and philanthropy. She co-chairs the Founder’s Council of the Williams Institute, a public policy research institute focused on sexual orientation and gender identity based at the UCLA School of Law, and she serves on the boards of the San Francisco Opera and Equal Rights Advocates. She has previously served on the boards of the Horizons Foundation and the National AIDS Memorial, chairing both of those boards during her tenure.