Hi, I'm Martha!
I've spent my career helping educators and students discover their own remarkable potential through literacy, creativity, and connection because I believe, down to my bones, that every story matters.
I began as a humanities teacher, blending English Language Arts and Social Studies into project-based learning experiences that sparked curiosity and centered student voice. That passion led me to school librarianship, where I built the heart of the school putting the right book in the right hands, launching Georgia's first all-student-run MakerSpace, embedding social-emotional learning into library practice, and redefining what literacy can look like: reading it, writing it, making it, telling it. Along the way, I served as President of the Georgia Library Media Association, coached more than 200 educators and librarians, and stood on the front lines against censorship to defend every student's right to read, create, and be seen.
In 2023, I took that mission global. As Global Community Program Manager for Adobe for Education, I led Adobe's flagship educator community programs — the Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) Leader program, a worldwide community I helped grow from 2,000 to more than 8,000 educators, and the invitation-only ACE Innovator program. I unified regional communities across the US, UK, India, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand into one global movement, produced international Summits, and designed signature experiences like Global TeachMeets, a worldwide book club on creativity, Creative Community Weeks, and a 24-hour worldwide Create-a-Thon spanning every time zone. Different scale, same heartbeat: helping educators tell their stories and empowering the storytellers in their classrooms.
At the core of everything I do is a simple belief: your story matters. We are all capable of discovering something remarkable within ourselves, and when we do, we have the power to create change. Whether through keynotes, workshops, coaching, or collaborative projects, I'm here to help you champion literacy in every form, build community, and empower learners to tell their own remarkable stories.
I began as a humanities teacher, blending English Language Arts and Social Studies into project-based learning experiences that sparked curiosity and centered student voice. That passion led me to school librarianship, where I built the heart of the school putting the right book in the right hands, launching Georgia's first all-student-run MakerSpace, embedding social-emotional learning into library practice, and redefining what literacy can look like: reading it, writing it, making it, telling it. Along the way, I served as President of the Georgia Library Media Association, coached more than 200 educators and librarians, and stood on the front lines against censorship to defend every student's right to read, create, and be seen.
In 2023, I took that mission global. As Global Community Program Manager for Adobe for Education, I led Adobe's flagship educator community programs — the Adobe Creative Educator (ACE) Leader program, a worldwide community I helped grow from 2,000 to more than 8,000 educators, and the invitation-only ACE Innovator program. I unified regional communities across the US, UK, India, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand into one global movement, produced international Summits, and designed signature experiences like Global TeachMeets, a worldwide book club on creativity, Creative Community Weeks, and a 24-hour worldwide Create-a-Thon spanning every time zone. Different scale, same heartbeat: helping educators tell their stories and empowering the storytellers in their classrooms.
At the core of everything I do is a simple belief: your story matters. We are all capable of discovering something remarkable within ourselves, and when we do, we have the power to create change. Whether through keynotes, workshops, coaching, or collaborative projects, I'm here to help you champion literacy in every form, build community, and empower learners to tell their own remarkable stories.
Leading Community at Global Scale
At Adobe, I had the joy of doing what I've always done — building community around creativity — with the whole world as my library. A few highlights from that chapter:
- Quadrupled the ACE Leader community from roughly 2,000 to more than 8,000 members worldwide, consistently exceeding growth goals, and onboarded 68 new ACE Innovators through a structured application and mentorship process.
- Produced global community Summits owning programming, onboarding, mentor selection, and facilitation end to end.
- Drove Adobe's education community presence at ISTELive 2026, supporting nearly 200 community-led sessions delivered by 60+ ACE Leader presenters, alongside booth programming and global delegations.
- Designed signature global engagement programs: Global TeachMeets, a worldwide book club on creativity, annual Creative Community Weeks, and a 24-hour global Create-a-Thon for World Creativity & Innovation Day.
- Championed educator voice inside the company, building feedback loops that translated classroom insight directly into product decisions.
She leads with grace and curiosity, consistently offering support and driving programme expansion across geos... I highly encourage anyone looking for a strategic and good-natured leader to connect with Martha.
— Nicole O'Connor, Adobe for Education Community Lead, UK
Guiding Creativity & Community Building
With more than 50 national and international presentations, I've dedicated my career to the intersection of literacy, creativity, social-emotional learning, and the transformative role of libraries. I'm honored to have been recognized as:
My work has taken me to leading conferences including ISTE, FETC, AASL, GaETC, GLMA, Future Ready Librarian Summits, AETC, TETC, Technovate, CobbInTech, and most recently as the Keynote Speaker for FAME 2026, a Featured Speaker for the FETC 2025 Library Leaders Track, and a presenter at ISTELive 2026.
Podcast Highlights
Articles & Thought Leadership
Conference Presentation Highlights
Each presentation ties back to my core mission: helping educators and students harness literacy and creativity as pathways to telling their stories and discovering their own remarkable potential
- Coastal Georgia School Librarian of the Year (2018)
- District Librarian of the Year (2019)
- AASL Social Media Superstar for Advocacy
- One of EdTech Magazine's 30 K-12 IT Influencers (2023)
- Past President, Georgia Library Media Association
- ISTE Ambassador & ISTE Certified Educator
My work has taken me to leading conferences including ISTE, FETC, AASL, GaETC, GLMA, Future Ready Librarian Summits, AETC, TETC, Technovate, CobbInTech, and most recently as the Keynote Speaker for FAME 2026, a Featured Speaker for the FETC 2025 Library Leaders Track, and a presenter at ISTELive 2026.
Podcast Highlights
- Future Ready Librarians Podcast: Beyond the Books — Creativity, Curiosity, and the Future of School Libraries
- Future Ready Librarians Podcast: Supporting Student Agency in Hybrid Teaching
- School Librarians United: Social-Emotional Learning: The New Literacy
- School Librarians United: #TeachSDGs
- Undisrupted (Future Ready Schools) Podcast: Empowering Creativity in Education
Articles & Thought Leadership
- Knowledge Quest (AASL), May/June 2024: Beyond the Books: Libraries as Catalysts for Sustainable Change
- Perspectives on Reading, 2020: Two Key Ways School Libraries Can Impact Social-Emotional Learning
- Featured in the DEMCO Planner, 2024 - 2026
Conference Presentation Highlights
- FAME 2026 — Keynote Speaker
- ISTELive 2026 — Presenter & Adobe education community lead (nearly 200 community-led sessions from 60+ ACE Leader presenters)
- Featured Speaker for FETC 2025, Library Leaders Track
- Storytelling Beyond the Shelf: Empowering Innovative Narratives in Our School Libraries
- Maker Magic: Empowering Student Agency and Creativity in Your Library
- Human-Centered Design: Transforming Library Spaces and Services
- Creative Literacy: Building Blocks for Imagination and Innovation
- ISTE 2024
- Redefining Digital Literacy: Leveraging AI to Enhance Learning
- Cultivating Creative Communicators: Podcasting With Adobe Express
- MakerSpaces as Catalysts for Change: Fostering Student-Led Initiatives
- Creative Expression: Unleashing Student Potential in the Library
- Global Goals, Local Impact: School Libraries Empowering Empathy through the SDGs
- Adobe Express in Action: The Librarian's Toolkit for Empowering Creators
- Collaboration for Sustainability
- AASL 2023
- Eco-Hub: Incorporating the SDGs to Save the Planet One Library at a Time
- Creating a Culture of Creation Literacy in the School Library
- Redefining Literacy: Leveraging AI to Enhance Information Access and Analysis
- Creating Joyful Library Experiences: Engaging Students and Building Community
- Featured Speaker for GaETC 2021
- Empowering Empathetic Citizens of the Future with Augmented and Virtual Reality
- Humanizing Your Library: Inclusive Practices for Library Advocates
- Socially-Responsive Innovators: Encouraging Human-Centered Design in the Library
- Collaborative Leadership: Building Capacity by Leading from the Middle
Each presentation ties back to my core mission: helping educators and students harness literacy and creativity as pathways to telling their stories and discovering their own remarkable potential
Leadership in Creativity Advocacy
My leadership spans national and international platforms, bringing educators together to explore how literacy and creativity transform learning and standing up when the freedom to read is under threat.
- President, Georgia Library Media Association: Led the association in the immediate years following the COVID-19 pandemic, spearheading initiatives to connect and support school librarians as they reopened their libraries and navigated a surge of censorship attacks at local and state levels.
- Founder of School Librarian Mentorship Program (Georgia): Established in 2021, this program fosters connections among school librarians across the state, creating a support system to share resources and inspire innovation in libraries.
- EdCamp Organizer: Spearheaded EdCamps across Georgia, focusing on creative practices, student voice, and real-world problem-solving through PBL. These events provide informal learning opportunities for educators to connect and grow.
- #GaLibChat Founder (2016): Established Georgia’s first Twitter chat for school librarians, a creative and innovative approach to bring librarians across the state together, share ideas, and build a professional network in real time.
- Crosswalk Author (2020): Wrote the Crosswalk between Georgia School Library Evaluation Instrument standards, ISTE Standards for Educators, and the Future Ready Librarians Framework, providing librarians with a practical guide to align their practices with key educational standards.
- Community Building at ISTE and AASL: Over years of presenting and organizing at ISTE and AASL, I’ve worked to build collaborative communities that elevate creativity, SEL, and student voice. For me, conferences aren’t just about presenting, they’re about creating spaces for lasting impact and professional growth.
Coaching, Mentoring, and Consulting
I partner with districts, organizations, and education companies on tailored coaching and consulting from literacy and creative literacy practices to project-based learning, community strategy, program design, and professional learning at scale. Whether you're a school librarian setting SMART goals around the ISTE, Future Ready, or AASL standards, or an organization building an educator community of your own, let's create something remarkable together because your story matters, too.
