Celebrating Our Honorees | Montgomery College, Maryland

Honorary Degree Recipients 1996–2019

2016 Honorary Degree Recipients

Ms. Georgette “Gigi” Godwin
President and CEO Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce

Ms. Georgette “Gigi” Godwin

Ms. Georgette “Gigi” Godwin has served as the president and CEO of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) since 2007. The MCCC is an association of regional, national, and international businesses with ties to Montgomery County. The MCCC’s mission is to help members grow and to advocate for a vibrant regional economy. In 2014, the Washington Business Journal ranked the MCCC third out of the top 25 business organizations in the Washington area.

Since 2008, Ms. Godwin has also served as the treasurer for the Montgomery County Chamber Community Foundation, which sponsors the National Center of the Veteran Institute for Procurement (VIP), the Public Safety Scholarship, Economic Development Studies, and the Montgomery County Green Business Certification Partnership.

Ms. Godwin’s background includes federal government, business, nonprofit, and local community experience. Early in her career, Ms. Godwin served on the staff of the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. On Capitol Hill, she co-founded and served as the first president of the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment. She also served as a Junior Sloan Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences’ Climate Research Board in Washington, DC. She was subsequently the CFO of an alternative energy development company.

A longtime supporter of education in Montgomery County, Ms. Godwin served on Montgomery College’s Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2011. She has also served as a board member on the Montgomery County Business Roundtable on Education, the Committee for Montgomery, the Montgomery County Executive’s Business Advisory Board, and Bethesda’s innovative Imagination Stage.

In 2010, she received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for outstanding support of our veterans for her work in promoting the Chamber Foundation’s Veteran Institute for Procurement. Her recent accolades include The Daily Record’s 2013 Influential Marylander Award for her civic leadership and the 2012 Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Director’s Award for Public Support and Advocacy in Public Safety.

Ms. Godwin earned a master’s degree in public administration from George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Grinnell College. She is married and has three children.