Margie O'Driscoll is currently the Strategist and Director of the Center for Innovation (CFI), a nonprofit that is reshaping the design and construction industry to create a better tomorrow for all. Margie has led transformational change in local government and the nonprofit arts and architecture community.
She leads efforts at CFI to provide innovative and proven ideas to assist Ukrainian reconstruction efforts, even as the war continues. CFI co-led the RE:Ukraine conference in Kyiv in July 2023 with Ukrainian NGO Dobrobat. In January 2024, CFI hosted a group of 10 Ukrainians (including government leaders, and experts in building, architecture, and cultural preservation) to visit California to begin planning for sustainable and people-centric reconstruction efforts.
Her past work included serving as Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Francisco and as the Arts Liaison to the Mayor. For over 12 years, Margie was the Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects, San Francisco, where she launched signature initiatives that transformed the built environment.
Margie has taught at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco State University. She was the Vice President of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Zen Center for over a decade and lives with her husband and two sons in San Francisco.