Margarita Lekaj didn’t drift into public service. She chose it, deliberately, at a point in her career when she could have stayed on a comfortable path in commercial banking. She had the credentials, the track record, and the leadership experience to keep climbing in the private sector. Instead, she looked at the institutions serving her local area— and the families depending on them — and decided that’s where her skills belonged.
That choice came into focus when her three children started education. Getting involved in their learning environments, she saw directly how funding choices, operational capacity, and thoughtful leadership shaped what happened inside classrooms every day. She wanted to be part of making those systems work better, not from the outside, but from within. So she redirected her career, pursued advanced credentials while working full-time and raising her family, and built the kind of expertise that lets her make a real difference in the institutions she serves. More than fifteen years later, that commitment is still what drives her.
Margarita Lekaj’s public service career spans more than fifteen years across multiple public sector institutions in New York State. She has worked as a Purchasing Agent/Coordinator, a BA, and a Senior Operations Leader, moving through roles that grew steadily in scope and responsibility.
Her day-to-day work has ranged from procurement oversight and contract admin to executive-level fiscal planning and operational leadership. The common thread across all of it has been the communities those institutions serve. That focus didn’t shift as her roles got bigger. If anything, it sharpened. Her move from commercial banking into public service — leaving behind a role where she’d been recognized as a Top 10% Branch Manager at JP Morgan Chase — was a values-driven choice, not a practical one. It has defined the direction of her professional life ever since, and she hasn’t second-guessed it.
Every choice she makes is grounded in honesty and consistency. Transparent, ethical leadership isn't something she works toward on good days. It's the baseline.
She holds herself to the same standards she expects from the people she works with. That means communicating clearly, following through on commitments, and owning outcomes — including the difficult ones.
Resources and opportunities should be distributed fairly. Margarita pays particular attention to communities and populations that have historically had less access to both, and that attention shapes how she approaches planning, procurement, and resource allocation.
Public resources deserve the same discipline she brought to private-sector fiscal planning. That standard hasn't changed across roles or institutions.
She approaches every professional responsibility with the understanding that her job exists to support others. That orientation isn't performative. It's genuinely how she shows up.
Margarita Lekaj’s leadership philosophy comes down to three things: service first, integrity always, and the belief that good leadership creates room for others to grow. She’s not interested in leadership as a status — she’s interested in it as a function, one that works best when it’s pointed outward rather than inward.
Her background shapes how she thinks about this. As a woman leader, a working mother, and an immigrant who built her career from scratch in a new country and a new language, she has navigated systems that weren’t always set up with people like her in mind. That experience gave her a particular empathy for the communities she serves, especially those doing the same. She leads with both analytical rigor and genuine care, and she doesn’t see those as competing impulses. In her experience, they work better together than either does alone.
If she were to give one piece of advice to anyone starting out in public service, it would be this: build relationships before you build expertise. The technical skills matter, but the trust you earn with the people around you — principals, teachers, colleagues— will carry you further than any credential ever will.
Margarita Lekaj’s commitment to public service doesn’t stop at the end of the workday. She is actively involved in the professional organizations that shape her field and the area she calls home.
Professionally, she is a member of the ASBO, ASBO International, and the NYSBO. She has served in committee leadership roles including Co-Chair of a Facilities and Operations Committee and Co-Chair of an Audit Committee, and has held membership on Safety, Policy, and Smart Bond Act committees.
Outside of work, she spends time with her family, follows her children’s music and athletic programs, reads widely, tends her garden, and stays involved in her local community. Those aren’t afterthoughts. They’re the connections that keep her grounded in the everyday realities her professional work is ultimately meant to support.