Kim Gandy graduated from
Louisiana Tech University in
Ruston, the seat of
Lincoln Parish, where she earned a
Bachelor of Science degree in
mathematics. Having taken a job with
American Telephone and Telegraph, Gandy became outraged that the firm required her husband's permission for
employee benefits. In 1973, she joined Louisiana NOW and devoted the next several years to the campaign that overturned the state's
Head and Master law, which gave husbands unilateral control over all property jointly owned by a married couple. Inspired by her activism in NOW, she studied at
Loyola University New Orleans School of Law where she was a member of the
Loyola Law Review and the National Moot Court Team. She graduated from Loyola in 1978. Gandy served as a senior assistant
district attorney in
New Orleans and later opened a private trial practice, litigating cases seeking fair treatment for women. She served as president of Louisiana NOW from 1979 through 1981, national secretary of NOW from 1987 to 1991, and executive vice president of NOW from 1991 to 2001. She was elected national NOW president in 2001 and re-elected to a second term in 2005. She was term-limited in 2009. Gandy is married to Christopher "Kip" Lornell, an American
ethnomusicologist and professor of music at
George Washington University in
Washington, D.C. The couple have two daughters. ==References==