Trustee Advisory Board

Patricia Gruber, President

Patricia Murphy Gruber is President of the Gruber Foundation and oversees all of its operations. In a little over a decade, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation has grown from its beginnings in what she calls “predictable philanthropy” to the present focused programming. She has clarified and expanded its focus.

Philanthropy in the US Virgin Islands, where the Foundation is headquartered, is centered primarily on education, with contributions of over ten annual four-year scholarships to private schools in the islands. In public schools, The Laws of Life Essay Contest, a character education program, is offered as a unit of English with cash awards for top essays in all four of the island's schools. The international prize program has now evolved to include five annual $500,000 awards recognizing achievements in the fields of Cosmology, Genetics, Justice, Neuroscience, and Women's Rights, with plans for two more science prizes in the near future. The Foundation offers early career scientist awards to promising young researchers in the fields of Cosmology, Genetics, and Neuroscience through collaborations with pre-eminent scientific organizations in the respective fields.

With a background in liberal arts, she holds an M.A. in Psychology from Antioch West University, and a 2-year Post Masters Certificate in Psychology from the Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley. Previously a psychotherapist in private practice in California, she now devotes herself full time to the Foundation.

Mrs. Gruber also supports her beliefs by serving on a number of boards, including the Advisory Council of the American Bar Association's Center for Human Rights; the International League for Human Rights at the United Nations; the Board of the Forum in the US Virgin Islands; the Board of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center; and also as founding member of the Milton Erickson Institute of the Bay Area. With her husband, Peter, she has guided the Gruber Foundation since its inception in 1993, and has been its full-time president since the year 2000.