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.
