Caroline Martin

Director of Strategic Projects

cmartin@niet.org

Caroline Martin serves as a director of strategic projects at NIET. In this role, Caroline works to enhance strategy and innovation, and increase efficiency and effectiveness both internally and across projects focused on teacher and leadership development with external partners. 

Prior to joining NIET, Caroline served as manager of K-12 programs and a research analyst at the Tennessee Department of Education. There, she worked to identify initiatives that both promote equity and lead to positive outcomes for students on their path to college and career. More specifically, she has conducted research related to early postsecondary opportunities, college and career advising practices, and innovative strategies for building a college-going culture.

Before joining TDOE, Caroline led education research projects in international settings as well, including studies on the effectiveness of e-readers in Kenya, and public-private education partnerships in Nicaragua. She is also a former English teacher and college counselor, and received both a Bachelor of Arts in public policy and a Master of Education in education policy from Vanderbilt University.

Caroline Martin

Why are you passionate about working at NIET?

Every student deserves to have the kind of education that challenges them and gives them the tools, knowledge, and support they need to live a life of purpose, meaning, and freedom. I have seen the transformative power teachers and leaders have to be the agents that make that possible for students, and I love working on a team that is dedicated to finding innovative ways to best support those teachers and leaders across the nation.

What do you do in your free time?

I absolutely love spending time outdoors: hiking, biking, camping, kayaking, running – I love it all. When I'm not enjoying the outdoors, I love to read, sing and play guitar, drink tea and catch up with friends and family, and travel.

Who is your favorite teacher?

It's definitely a toss-up between Miss Ipsen, my second grade teacher, and Ms. Eccleston, my AP English teacher. Miss Ipsen was my Ms. Frizzle (from "The Magic School Bus"). She transformed our classroom into one hundred different worlds to make whatever we were studying truly come alive. I have endless memories from that year and credit much of my love of learning to her. Ms. Eccleston was the teacher who endowed me with the knowledge of the transformative power literature has of giving you a window into a part of the human experience you might never gain otherwise. She was my inspiration for the kind of high school English teacher I wanted to be for my own students.