“Charlene Martinez is an amazing teacher, coach, facilitator and leader. As a longtime administrator, I have supreme confidence in recommending Charlene to support individuals and teams in transforming their relationships, deepening the sense of community within their organization, building a more inclusive and responsive culture, as well facilitating activities to strengthen the mission fulfillment of an organization.  Charlene is thoughtful and thorough in her approach and she is sensitive and caring in her personal interactions. I highly endorse Charlene Martinez, as I know that she will leave any person on team with whom she works in a better place because she will honor their needs and unique contexts. Charlene truly adept at promoting growth and facilitating healing.”

— Larry D. Roper, Professor Emeritus of Language, Culture and Society; Oregon State University

“Charlene Martinez is a gifted facilitator and trainer who combines compassion and creativity with deep insight and clarity of thought. Charlene supports people of all backgrounds in making profound connections between their personal experiences and meaningful equity work. Her direct and approachable style generates trust and invites full participation from everyone in the group. She is equally effective at facilitating workshops online and in person, and skilled at reading interpersonal dynamics and providing valuable feedback. With the infusion of visual arts and storytelling into her workshops, she offers a full spectrum of techniques for engaging participants in self-reflection and relationship-building. Teachers who attended her workshop at the Portland Art Museum found immediate classroom use for what they learned. I feel grateful to have worked with Charlene in the past and look forward to future collaborations!”

— Hana Layson, PhD., Head of Youth and Educator Programs, Portland Art Museum

“Charlene is unique in her ability to center the vision and intention of large scale organizations and projects while counseling and mentoring individuals towards their own healing, transformation, and liberation.  Charlene is capable of educating, training, and leading the masses. She takes it a step further by connecting and empowering those around her to teach and lead as well. Charlene offers integrated and group learning, research, and programming by utilizing social activism and artivism, cultural change making, relational leadership models, self-reflection and evaluation, and equitable project and program design. When I was tasked with the revival and creation of a sustainable future of a Womxn of Color Initiative at Oregon State University, she facilitated and supported the emergence of what would become AYA-Womxn of Color Initiative.  She consulted and worked with me on my largest project to date, Opening Space for the Radical Imagination.  She was integral in the planning and organizing of our multi day conferences. She is a mentor, teacher, counselor, healer, and friend to me.”

– Micknai Arefaine, MA Applied Anthropology

"I invited Charlene to serve on an external review team for me when I served as the Associate Vice President and Dean of Students at CSU, San Bernardino. Specifically, I asked Charlene to work with our team on a review of the needs for our underrepresented student groups and how our expanded vision for our Identity and Cultural Centers could support the graduation initiative goals for our campus. Her work was stellar and provided important insights that informed the development of new centers as well as a campaign to support the expansion of a new Student Union on the campus. I highly recommend Charlene as she brings student-centeredness, integrity and deep knowledge to any project she leads, co-leads or supports as a team member.”

– Alysson M. Satterlund, PhD.

"I quickly learned many skills that pertain to administration, program management, communication, and event planning. However, the strides that I felt professionally were no match to the internal transformation that I underwent because of Charlene’s dual mentorship and leadership development program. Charlene immersed us in community building retreats and meetings, connected us to national cultural organizing initiatives, and built spaces to find and nurture creative expression. These practices were grounded in social justice pedagogy such as critical race theory and multiracial consciousness—everything was interdisciplinary in theory and practice.”

– Marwah Al-Jilani, English Teacher, Palestine

“[My organization benefited from the group retreat] by hearing all voices and perspectives. I think activities gave folks the opportunity to democratize our work process and slow down. Charlene is warm and approachable. It truly felt like you were facilitating and not directing.”

— Stacie Taniguchi, Assistant Director & Multicultural Student Center Coordinator, Portland State University