Marcus Martin, PhD, MPH, MA EIF PRESIDENT & CEOMarcus 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 and Chairman of Blockbuster, Al Bru, Retired Vice Chairman of PepsiCo, Jeff Rich, retired CEO of ACS Computers, and David Biegler, CEO and Chairman of Southcross Energy, who commonly attribute their professional success to the educational support they received from certain influential individuals who provided scholarships, mentoring and academic 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 help America sustain its competitive edge in today’s global, knowledge-based economy.
 
EIF envisioned a world where every young person could have a chance to pursue a college education. To accomplish this, EIF first offered a National Scholarship Program where over $6 million in renewable scholarships were awarded to high school students across the country 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 and economic barriers. In 2003, EIF launched EIF USA, a comprehensive college access and college readiness program addressing the lack of educational support, mentoring and college-going orientation among low-income, urban youth. Dr. Martin has initiated and implemented some incredible improvements to EIF USA since joining the organization in August of 2007. Having lived through many of the same experiences as the students EIF serves, he has been able to apply his own life lessons, academic training and leadership skills to help disadvantaged students across the nation excel academically. EIF USA 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 USA services and its higher education advisors. Dr. Martin has also expanded EIF’s ability to help its students leverage the resources to pay for college through EIF USA University Scholarship Partnerships.

Prior to joining Education is Freedom, Dr. Martin served as Director of the J. McDonald Williams Institute and as a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma. He is an accomplished scholar with research expertise in the areas of educational inequality, 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 a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, his PhD in Applied Statistics and Urban Sociology from Howard University, followed by another 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 has adjunct faculty appointments in the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas and in the School of Education at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.

Dr. Martin is a frequent guest speaker across the country on a number of educational, social and economic 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.


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