Marcus Martin, PhD, MPH, MA EIF PRESIDENT & CEO


Marcus Martin, PhD, MPH, MA President & CEO, Education Is Freedom Dr. Marcus Martin is the President and CEO of Education is Freedom (EIF). EIF is a national non-profit organization with headquarters in Dallas, Texas. EIF was founded in 2002 with the creation of a dynamic board of corporate leaders, such as Jim Keyes, CEO of Blockbuster, and David Biegler, CEO of Estrella Energy, who commonly attribute their professional success to the educational support they received from certain influential individuals who provided scholarships, mentoring and other support. These profound experiences, combined with their positions as business leaders, government officials and entrepreneurs, inspired a commitment to create an educated workforce that could build effective companies and strong communities in today’s knowledge-based economy. EIF envisioned a world where every young person could pursue a college education. To accomplish this, EIF first offered a National Scholarship Program where renewable scholarships were awarded to high school students in need of college financial assistance. This program quickly revealed that financial support alone was insufficient to ensure college completion, especially if students experience other profound social or economic barriers. In 2003, EIF launched EIF Dallas, a local, comprehensive college access and college readiness program addressing the lack of educational support, mentoring and college-going orientation among low-income, urban youth in the Dallas Independent School District.
 
Dr. Martin has initiated and implemented some incredible improvements to EIF Dallas since joining the organization. Having lived through many of the same experiences as the students EIF serves, he has been able to apply his own life lessons and academic training to help disadvantaged students across the nation excel academically. EIF Dallas is now introduced to middle school students so encouragement of academic excellence and a college-going culture begins early. Early intervention also provides students with long-term relationships with both EIF Dallas services and its higher education advisors. Dr. Martin has also expanded EIF as an organization, as well as EIF Dallas programs, in order to provide more comprehensive services to students and their families as EIF helps make higher education a reality for its students.

Prior to joining Education is Freedom, Dr. Martin served as Director of the J. McDonald Williams Institute, research arm of the Foundation for Community Empowerment, currently the Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Martin also has an academic appointment as a faculty member in the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He is an accomplished scholar whose research interests are in the areas of economic mobility, race relations and health disparities. Dr. Martin, a first generation college graduate who attended college on a football scholarship, received his Bachelor’s Degree in Education and his Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Northeast Louisiana University, followed by his PhD in Applied Statistics and Urban Sociology from Howard University, and then a Master of Public Health degree with concentrations in epidemiology and community health from the University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health.

Dr. Martin is a frequent guest speaker across the country on a number of social issues including the academic achievement gap, student athletes, race relations, non-profit leadership and organizational effectiveness, African American history, urban youth culture, economic mobility and poverty and health disparities. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Blessing of Our Burdens, which discusses his life of growing up in an impoverished, single family home in Louisiana and offers 6 simple steps toward achieving lasting success.