Kim Gandy

Gandy was was born in Louisiana in 1954. After graduating from Louisiana Tech University in 1973 with a degree in mathematics, she worked as a forecaster and statistical analyst for the telephone company, South Central Bell.

Gandy joined NOW in 1973. Five years thereafter, she graduated from the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans and promptly found a job as an assistant district attorney in that city. She later went into private law practice, specializing in child support, marital custody, lesbian custody, domestic violence and related issues.

She sued the U.S. Air Force for sex discrimination and, after nine years of litigation, won a $184,000 judgment. In 1981 Gandy founded the Louisiana Women's Lobby Network. As the organization's Director, she drafted several measures that became law, including the Louisiana Child Support Enforcement Act and Louisiana's first Domestic Abuse Assistance Act. Gandy served for three years as President of Louisiana NOW.

In 1982 she was elected to NOW's National Board. From 1983-87 she was the organization's Mid-South Regional Director. In 1987 she was elected NOW's national Secretary-Treasurer; she also spent four years as Treasurer of the NOW PACs. During the 1980s and 1990s Gandy was active in the Association of Democratic Women and the Lesbian & Gay Political Action Caucus. Kim Gandy is serving her second term as president of the National Organization for Women, elected by the group's grassroots members in 2001 and again in 2005. She has served as a national officer of NOW since 1987 and in state, local and regional leadership positions since 1973. Gandy also is president of the NOW Foundation, chair of NOW's Political Action Committees, and serves as the principal spokesperson for all three entities. Gandy oversees NOW's multi-issue agenda, which includes: advancing reproductive freedom, promoting diversity and ending racism, stopping violence against women, winning LGBT rights, ensuring economic justice, ending sex discrimination and achieving equality for women.

Since 2001, Gandy has led NOW's campaigns on issues ranging from Supreme Court nominations to the rights of mothers and caregivers, from Social Security reform to ending the war in Iraq. Through grassroots political action, Gandy helped increase the women's vote and change the face of Congress in 2006 and is leading the organization's efforts around the pivotal 2008 elections. Currently, she resides in Silver Spring, Md., with her husband Dr. Christopher "Kip" Lornell, an ethnomusicologist and part-time Professor of Music at George Washington University. They have two daughters, Elizabeth Cady Lornell and Katherine Eleanor Gandy.