SEMC is excited to announce Margaret Huang as the 2025 Annual Meeting Keynote Speaker. The keynote speech will incorporate the 2025 conference theme, Future Forward: Reach, Remember, Reclaim.

Margaret Huang, an advocate for human rights and racial justice for three decades, is the President and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC serves as a catalyst for racial justice in the U.S. South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people. With offices in five states in the Deep South and Washington, DC, the SPLC works to eradicate poverty, reduce incarceration, protect voting rights, and combat white supremacy.

Throughout her career, Margaret has championed social justice and human dignity, advocating against discrimination and oppression in all its forms. Prior to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Margaret served as the Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, where she was responsible for leading campaigns to protect the human rights of migrants and refugees, torture survivors, gun violence victims, and activists and protestors across the globe. Margaret has given testimony before the U.S. Congress, United Nations human rights bodies, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She currently sits on the Boards of Directors for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Progressive Multiplier Fund. She is a 2003 ICAP Fellow and a Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow.

Margaret previously served as the Executive Director of the Rights Working Group, a coalition focused on protecting human rights and civil liberties of vulnerable communities post-September 11th. Other experience includes working at Global Rights, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, The Asia Foundation, and the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Ms. Huang received a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, and a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University.