Alina Martinez

Alina Martinez evaluates the impacts of education programs and practices, spanning youth to adult populations. Her areas of emphasis include college access and success, career training,  and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and policy.

Martinez currently directs an evaluation of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Inclusion Across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science, a program that funds grants to improve the education and training of people underrepresented in STEM careers. She is a lead author for and senior contributor to a study examining the enhancement of college advising in the federal Upward Bound college access program. She is also a senior contributor for a study of college transition messaging in GEAR UP, examining customized text messaging as an approach in GEAR UP to advise students as they transition to college. She serves as the deputy project director on the Assessing Evidence of Effectiveness in Adult Education design study. She is leading the evaluation of NSF’s International Research Experiences for Students. Her previous projects include evaluations of NSF’s Advanced Technological Education program, NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program, and NASA’s Explorer Schools and Summer of Innovation programs, among others.

Before joining Mathematica in 2018, Martinez held positions with Abt Associates Inc., Harvard University, the Radcliffe Public Policy Institute, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. She has an Ed.D. in education policy from Harvard University.