Margarita Gurdian

Margarita Gurdian was Minister of Health of Nicaragua from 2004-2007. During that time she was in charge of the management of 1076 health units, 25,000 employees and a budget of $182 million US per year. As Minister, Margarita negotiated and implemented an alliance between the country and Merck & Co. to conduct a joint project valued at $75 million US to vaccinate all infants born in Nicaragua over a 3-year period to prevent rotovirus gastroenteritis. She also led the planning process for a National Health Policy for 2004-2015, a 5-year health plan and the Health Comprehensive Model of Care. She conducted and implemented a reorganization of the Ministry, promoted and supervised the implementation of an integral approach for malaria, elaborated a Reproductive Health and HIV AIDS National Strategy, and successfully implemented a plan to eliminate Rubella in Nicaragua. Before her position as Minister of Health, Margarita served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Health, as the country representative for the Center for Communications Program at the Bloomberg School of Public Health of Johns Hopkins University, as Executive Director of the Nicaraguan Family and Children Fund (FONIF), social policy advisor to the Vice Minister of the Presidency, and as administrator of Oxfam U.K. and Ireland in Nicaragua. She has served as an analyst of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vice Consul of the Consulate General of Nicaragua in Los Angeles, California. Margarita received her B.A. in Latin American Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and an M.A. in Latin American Studies with a major in Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.