Lisa Martin has over 25 years of experience working with arts and cultural organizations on both US coasts, as well as across Europe. Lisa has served as Executive Director of Silver Spring Town Center Inc, a non-profit, since November 2011. As the first Executive Director of SSTCi, she has oversight of over 120 ongoing SSTCi programs and events that take place throughout the year in Downtown Silver Spring, including the annual Silver Spring Blues Festival. She has also worked in research and evaluation for museums, galleries, science centers and historic sites.
Lisa is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer having served as an English Teacher in the village of Loo (LOW)--10km, from the Estonian capital of Tallinn. In the early 2000's, she served as the NPCA Events Chair for the Peace Corps' 40th (and rescheduled 40 1) anniversary celebrations. In 2005, she served as a Crisis Corps Volunteer on Rita/Katrina Relief. She has served on boards related to international development and cultural exchange, including the international board of directors of Partners of the Americas and its DC Chapter, as well as with Peace Corps alumni groups, including as president of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington DC and Friends of the Baltics. In 2013, as part of a Partners of the Americas cultural exchange, she traveled to Brasilia, Brazil on an Education and Culture Program travel grant sponsored by the US State Department. As part of this exchange, she gave several presentations entitled Community Building Through the Arts in Public Spaces, which details her work in creative placemaking.
She has a Master's Degree in Arts Management from American University, a BS in Cultural Anthropology and BA in Journalism from San Diego State University, as well as an Executive Certificate in Facilitation from the Institute of Transformational Leadership at Georgetown University. Lisa is recipient of the 2016 Montgomery County Executive's Award for Excellence in the Arts & Humanities for Community Leadership, and is a member of the 2017 Core Class of Leadership Montgomery.
Like many RPCVs, Lisa is an avid traveler and learner of languages. In her spare time, she also enjoys festivals, museums, music, film, theater, comedy writing, doing art (encaustic, mosaics, mixed media & collage), and singing in two choirs, including the Washington International Chorus and the Baltimore Washington Estonian Choir.
A Native San Diegan, Lisa has called DC home since 1999. She lives in Foggy Bottom with her partner Towfik who is originally from Bangladesh.
