PSU History
Dr. Martin is the CYFS Practicum Coordinator at Portland State University School of Social Work. She provides student practicum placements and coordination and teaches courses in the Child, Youth, & Family Studies (CYFS) practicum program.
Experience
Dr. Martin's research and teaching interests include critical hope and despair, the pedagogy of hope, refugee education, psychosocial and social-emotional learning, and peace-building. She is a community-based action researcher who conducts research with vulnerable populations, in particular, refugee youth, often following their lead in her work. She is committed to co-creating practical solutions that are culturally responsive and led by, for, and in partnership with the community.
She has lived and worked alongside communities in over 30 countries. Her experiences vary from designing, implementing, and evaluating sustainable psychosocial peace-building educational programs in four countries: Dieplsoot Informal Settlement, South Africa (nthabiseng project, 2001), Vishwa Shanti Vihara Vishwa Monastery, Nepal (Khelera Sikou Project, 2012), Jamaica (Irie Project, 2010), and Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya (Pambazuka, 2017). Her current research explores how South-South Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) can support the mental health of young refugees (18-35 years old) and host peacebuilder leaders through an arts-based approach.
Academic/Research Interests
Dr. Martin is a (forced) migration researcher, hope scholar, and youth psychosocial peace-building education practitioner who specializes in SE Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) and East Africa (Kenya and Uganda). She is a practitioner-researcher-scholar. Her practitioner work focuses on psychosocial peace-building education programs in South Africa (Nthabiseng Project), Jamaica (Irie Project), Nepal (Khelera Sikou Project), and Kenya (Pambuzuko Project). The art-based programs explore the role of hope, storytelling, and peace-building education in impacting youths' mental health and well-being in conflict and protracted contexts. Her Speaking for Ourselves Action Research (SOAR; Martin, 2018) is based on critical hope (pedagogy of hope), a theory and process that expands and deepens inquiry and dialogue, fostering critical reflections, shared responsibility, and transformative actions. Her critical hope and migration scholarship are based on co-creating and supporting "third spaces" that are for, led by, and with BIPOC communities, particularly in the Global South, so that they can produce their own knowledge, research, and publications.
She was the recipient of the 2018 Carnegie Project of the Education Doctorate (CPED) Dissertation in Practice of the Year Award and also the Louise M. Berman Fellows Award. In 2020, she was a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Fellow and Mentor, a fellow at the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (2020-2022), and a recipient of the 2020 Rotary Peace Fellowship in Thailand. In 2021-2022, she was a Fulbright Scholar (TUSEF/Fulbright Thailand, 2021-2022), in Thailand. From 2023 to 2024, she participated in the National Institute of Mental Health's LEAD Global Training Program in Uganda and was a Salzburg Global Fellow in Austria.
Dr. Martin is a faculty member of the Portland State University School of Social Work. She provides student practicum placements and coordination and teaches courses in the Child, Youth, & Family Studies (CYFS) practicum program.