August 23, 2022

Margaret Irwin (Secretary)

Margaret has spent over three decades working in non-profit organizations with a focus on the arts.   She has been committed to social justice issues since moving to Los Angeles in 1984, beginning with an active role of service during the first decade of the HIV/AIDS crisis. 

Elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2021, Margaret serves Los Angeles as the Elder Director on the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council. In this role, she chairs the Committee on Aging Neighbors and participates actively to provide resources, holiday and permanent meals, and connections among seniors 65+, Council Districts 14 and 1, and the community. She received a Certificate of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles. Her support of the elderly during the height of the pandemic in 2020 was mentioned in an article in the The New York Times.

For the past five years, Margaret has been the Senior Executive Assistant to Bishop Grant J. Hagiya in the Episcopal Office of The United Methodist Church. In this role, she is the liaison to the Cabinet and champions the many social justice issues the progressive conference and bishop lead across Southern California, Hawaii, Saipan, Guam, and the Pacific Islands. 

She was the first and only Chief of Staff at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Under President Laura Trombley, she served as Assistant Secretary on the Board of Trustees. She has served as the Board Liaison at the Autry Museum, Los Angeles Opera, and Center Theatre Group. 

In the 1990s and early 2000s, she worked backstage as Stage Manager, Company Manager, and Backstage Liaison at the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Doolittle Theatre, Henry Ford Theatre, and Wilshire Theatre. She was Company Manager for the Japan Tour of Sir Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man. She was Backstage Liaison for more than 2,200 performances of LA’s longest-running musical,   The Phantom of the Opera (1989-1994). She is the recipient of the Joseph “Skipper” Davidson Award from Center Theatre Group. 

Margaret is a guest columnist for The Boulevard Sentinel paper. 

She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Religious Studies from Southern Methodist University. She was born in Dallas, grew up in Nashville, and lives in Los Angeles.