Margarita Inés Benítez Martínez (born 1949) is a Puerto Rican educator and education policy expert. After completing a bachelor of arts degree at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

, she earned a master's at

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

and a PhD at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She taught Spanish and literature classes at the

University of Puerto Rico at Cayey The University of Puerto Rico at Cayey (UPR-Cayey) is a public university in Cayey, Puerto Rico. It is part of the University of Puerto Rico System. It was initially founded as a regional school in 1967 and became a college in 1969. It was award ...

in the 1970s. Moving into administration in the 1980s, she was rector and then president of UPR Cayey while simultaneously serving as the acting

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

of the

University of Puerto Rico at Humacao The University of Puerto Rico-Humacao (, UPRH or UPR-Humacao) is a public college in Humacao, Puerto Rico. It is part of the University of Puerto Rico. Its campus is home to the UPRH Astronomical Observatory and the college graduates more majors ...

. In 1986, she founded the first

women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

program in Puerto Rico. In 1998, Benítez moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department of the United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and ...

and implement Title V, government funding designed to eliminate under-representation of Latinos in higher education. After six years, she moved to the Institute for Higher Education Policy and worked with other NGOs to improve access to higher education for Latino students and coordinate tertiary education activities for a network of universities. She co-founded the Women's Knowledge International project in 2011 and has since served as its co-director. The project aims to improve scholarship on women and their involvement in global peace initiatives. She returned to Puerto Rico in 2018 as the first woman to head the ( Puerto Rican Endowment for the Humanities). Under her leadership the organization created both an on-line encyclopedia of Puerto Rico and a digital cultural archive.

Early life and education

Margarita Inés Benítez Martínez was born in 1949