Lissa Ann Martinez is an American ocean engineer and consultant from

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. During her career, she has worked on policy-based solutions for environmental challenges. Following her graduation from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), Martinez worked as a federal employee for the

US Maritime Administration The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation. MARAD administers financial programs to develop, promote, and operate the U.S. Maritime Service and the U.S. Merchant Marine. In ...

and the

US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, mi ...

. Her focus was shipping-related pollution control, maritime health, and safety. Martinez has also worked for the National Research Council and was on MIT's board of trustees. In San Antonio, she has been involved with

urban forestry Urban forestry is the care and management of single trees and tree populations in Urban area, urban settings for the purpose of improving the urban environment. Urban forestry involves both planning and management, including the programming of ...

initiatives.

Early life and education

Lissa Ann Martinez was born in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

on July 15, 1954. Her father, Edmundo O. Martinez, was a

US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expedi ...

Staff Sergeant. She graduated from

Jefferson High School This is a list of memorials to Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and third president of the United States and the author of the United States Declaration of Independence. Buildings Elementary schools *Jefferson Elementary School, in Cammack Villa ...

and won a scholarship to

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. Martinez graduated from MIT in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in

ocean engineering Marine engineering is the engineering of boats, ships, submarines, and any other marine vessel. Here it is also taken to include the engineering of other ocean systems and structures – referred to in certain academic and professional circ ...

. She earned her master's degree in technology and public policy from MIT's Department of Ocean Engineering in 1980. Her thesis was "Hazardous Chemical Incineration at Sea: A Disposal Alternative for the United States" and her thesis supervisor was Judith Tegger Kildow.

Engineering career

From 1976 to 1994, Martinez's work focused on shipping-related pollution control and maritime health and safety. She started her career as a general engineer at the

's Office of Ship Construction in 1976. Martinez was a member of the United States Interagency Ad Hoc Work Group for the Chemical Waste Incinerator Ship Program. Martinez and Daniel Leubecker's paper "Chemical Waste Incinerator Ships - The Interagency Program to Develop a Capability in the United States" was presented at a

Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) is a global professional society that provides a forum for the advancement of the engineering profession as applied to the marine field. Although it particularly names the naval arch ...

meeting in 1981. She continued working for the Maritime Administration until 1983. She was elected as the first Fellow of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 1984. Martinez worked for the

as a staff mechanical engineer from 1985 to 1988. As a staff officer for the National Research Council, she worked on US compliance with an international agreement to reduce oceanic plastic pollution. She established a private consulting practice specializing in maritime environmental protection and safety beginning in mid-1988. Following her work as a federal employee, Martinez continued on in the same field as a consulting engineer. She was a founding member of the DC chapter of the

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1974 by a group of engineers employed by the city of Los Angeles. Their objective was to form a National organization of professional engineers to serv ...

. In 1997, Martinez was elected to a five-year term on MIT's board of trustees.

Urban forestry in San Antonio

Following flooding incidents in 1998 and 2003, Martinez turned her focus to

. She attended the 2003 National Urban Forest Conference, participated in tree inventories and

tree planting Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture and from the lower-cost but slower and les ...

s, and measured Champion Trees. In 2009, Martinez trained as a Texas master naturalist. In San Antonio, she worked with organizations dedicated to local creek cleanup. She conducted tours of Olmos Creek and monitored water quality through the

citizen science The term citizen science (synonymous to terms like community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is research conducted with participation from the general public, or am ...

testing initiative Texas Stream Team. After reading the San Antonio Climate Action & Adaptation Plan (CAAP) and finding nothing on trees and forestry, Martinez volunteered to help with the plan.

Personal life

Martinez married Brian Hughes, who she met as a fellow undergraduate at MIT. They had two sons. While living in

Takoma Park, Maryland Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, D.C., Washington, and part of the Washington metropolitan area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea ...

in 1991, Martinez was a member of a task force that created new election districts, leading to changes in the law allowing non-citizens to vote in city elections. Martinez and Hughes moved back to San Antonio in the 1990s. Beginning in the late 1990s, they started investing in high-tech companies in San Antonio. They also represented MIT by recruiting and interviewing students from the area. Martinez lives in Castle Hills.

References

External links

Oil spill issues panel with Lissa Martinez
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, MIT's Technology Day, 1993.
Shipboard Waste Disposal: Taking Out the Trash Under the New Rules
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, Lissa Ann 1954 births Living people 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers Activists from San Antonio American marine engineers American mechanical engineers American women engineers Engineers from Texas American businesspeople Jefferson High School (San Antonio, Texas) alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni 20th-century American women 21st-century American women