Appointed in September 2017, Natasha Martin is the inaugural Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion for Seattle University. While continuing to teach in the school of law, she served as Associate Vice President for Institutional Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer for the 2016-2017 academic year, as well as Co-Chair of the university-wide President’s Task Force on Diversity and Inclusive Excellence, 2014-2016. Her leadership experience also includes three years of service as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development in the School of Law. Vice President Martin recently completed the American Council of Education’s Fellows Program, a premier higher education leadership development program as part of its 2021-2022 cohort.
Serving for 20 years at SU, Vice President Martin is a tenured faculty member in the School of Law where she has taught Employment Discrimination, Advanced Topics in Employment Discrimination, Professional Responsibility, and Torts. The main thrust of her interdisciplinary academic work centers on contemporary workplace realities and understanding of the complex legal, organizational, cultural, and behavioral dynamics that impact the inclusion and advancement of individuals from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds, women, and other marginalized individuals.
In addition to her teaching and scholarly engagement, Vice President Martin is an active contributor and thought leader in many professional settings. A frequent presenter at national conferences, she is engaged in academic and broader community dialogues on diversity, equity, and inclusion matters. Dedicated to broad notions of inclusivity, Professor Martin was appointed twice to the Washington State Gender and Justice Commission and was named to Lawyers of Color’s 50 Under 50 list of minority law professors making an impact in legal education in the 2014 Law School Diversity Issue.
Before joining the legal academy, Professor Martin spent several years as in-house employment legal counsel and in private law firm practice focusing on employment discrimination litigation. She also served as a federal judicial law clerk in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Professor Martin is a proud graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically Black Catholic university in the nation, and earned a law degree from the University of Notre Dame School of Law.
Vice President Martin is inspired by nature and the human spirit, and treasures moments spent with her husband, daughter, and their doodle, as well as time lost in a good book.