Martha M. Walz

Martha M. Walz, over the past 15 years, has devoted most of her career and volunteer service to ensuring educational opportunity for all children, with a particular focus on access to a high-quality education for children in low-income families. Marty is the founder and principal of Marty Walz and Associates, a management and public affairs consulting firm. Before founding her own firm, Marty served as the president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, leading the organization’s health care, education and advocacy work. Prior to joining Planned Parenthood in March 2013, Marty represented the 8th Suffolk District as a Massachusetts State Representative for 8 years. She served on the joint committee on education for six years, two of which as chair. Among Marty’s legislative achievements, she was the author of An Act Relative to the Achievement Gap, the state’s most sweeping education reform law since 1993. She also wrote the state’s anti-bullying law, enacted in May 2010 and since cited as a national model, and the law allowing the establishment of virtual schools, which upended traditional thinking about how and where children can be taught and learn. In addition to her legislative experience, Marty has held leadership positions at non-profit and public organizations including Jumpstart for Young Children and Boston Public Schools. She also taught at Northeastern University as an adjunct professor for four years. Her volunteer positions have included serving on the Mass Insight Education Board of Directors and the Kingsley Montessori School’s Advisory Council. She is a long-time member of Boston’s Ward 5 Democratic Committee, having served as its treasurer and chair. Marty holds a master's in public administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she was a Kennedy Fellow and a Lucius N. Littaur Fellow. Marty also has a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. from Colgate University, from which she graduated magna cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa.