Carol L. Martin, PhD, is an international affairs consultant with more than twenty years of expertise in strategic and policy planning. She has worked with counterparts in government, civil society organizations, and higher education institutions from countries from around the globe to design, manage, implement, and evaluate a range of programs that advance equitable and sustainable democratic governance and development. A lecturer in the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs since 2015, Dr. Martin advises senior theses, and her policy task forces have immersed students in analyzing the democracy and governance dimensions of a topic of interest to them (including anti-corruption initiatives, climate change, conflict, elections, entrepreneurship, gender equality, health, human rights, migration, social justice, and the media) as a basis for recommending improvements for initiatives in a country with a US Agency for International Development (USAID) presence.

Dr. Martin served as Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of State, where she advised senior State Department and USAID officials on the process and content of the inaugural 2010 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which provided a blueprint for elevating American civilian agencies’ ability to help “prevent and resolve conflicts; help countries lift themselves out of poverty into prosperous, stable, and democratic states; and build global coalitions to address global problems.” From 2002-2009, Dr. Martin served as Executive Director of the African Studies Association; with its 2,000 members and 45 affiliated groups, the ASA is the largest global organization dedicated to the production, dissemination, and exchange of knowledge and information about Africa. She has served as the Senior Democracy and Governance Advisor for USAID in Mozambique; as the Democracy Advisor at USAID’s Regional Center for Southern Africa, in Botswana; and as resident representative for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Namibia and Angola. Dr. Martin has also worked with global consulting firms in Liberia and South Africa, and as a program officer for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for activities in Namibia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Dr. Martin first traveled to Africa as a Fulbright Scholar in Senegal. She later conducted extensive field research in two countries for her dissertation, “From Historical to Electoral Legitimacy? Democratization in Mexico and Senegal,” earning her PhD in political science at Yale University, where she also completed her BA with a self-designed major in international development.