Dr. Staci Martin's research and teaching interests include critical hope and despair, pedagogy of hope, refugee education, psychosocial & 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.

 

Dr. Martin has lived and worked alongside communities in over 20 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).

 

Dr. Martin has presented in over 20 conferences and authored 10 papers. By researching, co-authoring, and co-presenting with communities, she believes she can use her privilege to co-create spaces so that communities can authentically contribute their voices and solutions to complex problems that impact them. In light of this, she has co-authored three papers (Martin et al., 2018; Martin & Umubyeyi, 2019; Martin et al., 2019) with co-researchers and co-presented and authored papers with her co-researchers at six conferences, domestically (OR, CA, FL) and internationally (Italy, Germany, Ghana).

​

Dr. Martin is a faculty member of Portland State University School of Social Work. She provides student practicum placements and coordination of the Child, Youth, &Family Studies (CYFS) practicum program, instruction, and student advising.

 

Dr. Martin earned her Ed.D. in the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program: Curriculum and Instruction from Portland State University in 2018. She also has a MA, Art Therapy from the School of the Art of Institute of Chicago and has done post-graduate work at the University of London: Goldsmiths College. She was awarded the PSU's Adjunct Excellence Award for Instruction in 2018. 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. She was a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Fellow and Mentor, as well as, a recipient of the 2020 Rotary Peace Fellow in Thailand.

 

Currently, she is teaching full-time, a Fulbright Scholar (TUSEF/Fulbright Thailand, 2021-2022), Fellow in The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI) Summer program in NYC, and leading a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) that focuses on contingent faculty at Portland State University. She is the lead editor for the Routledge book, "Global South Scholars in the Western Academy: Harnessing Unique Experiences, Knowledges, and Positionality in the Third Space" (Martin et al., 2022).