Katie S. Martin

Katie Martin is the Executive Director of the Foodshare Institute For Hunger Research & Solutions. She has over 20 years of experience developing and evaluating creative solutions to hunger. Katie’s work focuses on the connection between hunger and health, and identifying the root causes of food insecurity.
Prior to joining Foodshare, Katie was an Assistant Professor and Director of the Public Health program at the University of Saint Joseph, and previously was an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Connecticut.
Katie has a long track record of building collaborations with local and national anti-hunger organizations. She led the team performing the first rigorous evaluation of a food pantry program in Hartford, CT. Katie used what she learned from that project and has collaborated with Foodshare and Urban Alliance to create the “More Than Food” framework. The goal of the framework is to build capacity within food pantries to address the underlying causes of hunger. Several food pantries nationwide are replicating the framework. Katie also helped develop a new stoplight nutrition system called SWAP (Supporting Wellness at Pantries) to promote healthy food in food banks and food pantries.
Katie is recognized as a national leader on food security issues, and has presented her research at dozens of regional and national conferences. She earned a B.A. in Political Science from Indiana University, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Nutritional Science & Policy from Tufts University.
Katie is happily married, is the proud mom of two sons, and a host parent for an exchange student from Nigeria.