MARGARET GONZALEZ
Margaret Gonzalez is founder and president of GVR Public Relations
Agency, Inc., The
International Association of
Hispanic Meeting Professionals (IAHMP) and the Certified Diversity
Meeting
Professional (CDMP) program. Ms. Gonzalez is also the publisher of
Hispanic Meetings &
Travel and MAES National Magazine.
Margaret has over 30 years of experience in working with
diverse groups in
the United States and abroad. She is a magna cum laude graduate of
the University of Houston at Clear Lake with a
Bachelor of
Science degree in Legal Studies and Political Science and has done graduate work
in Urban Planning and Environmental Studies. Margaret has also studied at the
University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center, was selected for The
IBM Community Leaders
Program and is a graduate of Leadership Houston. Her
experience includes working as a Public Affairs Officer for County government
where she wrote the county's Affirmative Action program for the US Department
of Labor; she has
also administered grants funded by the US Department of
Education. Margaret is one of the leading
authorities in the Hispanic Market for the meetings and hospitality industry.
She has over twenty years of management experience in planning meetings,
conferences and special events. She has also raised millions of dollars for
community based organizations that work to improve the lives of minority
Americans. Active in politics she has been a candidate for state office and has
been a campaign manager for several political candidates at the local, state and
national level. Margaret has been elected to the
national boards of Common Cause in Washington,
DC; The Panel of American Women
and the University of Houston Alumni Board of Directors.
She was also elected National Vice President for the League of United Latin
American Citizens (LULAC). Her extensive experience has prepared
Ms.Gonzalez for her current leadership role in
IAHMP and the development of the industry's first Certified Diversity Meeting
Professional (CDMP)
program. She is also a member of the MGM Grand
Multicultural Advisory Council and the Hilton Hotels Corporate Multicultural
Advisory Committee.
Margaret is a native born fifth generation Texan and is married to Ralph
Gonzalez, a Texas A&M University aeronautical engineering graduate who spent
over thirty years in the nation's space program at the NASA Johnson Space Center.