Maria Emilia Martin is an award-winning multi-media journalist who currently directs the GraciasVida Center for Media, a nonprofit organization based in Texas and La Antigua, Guatemala devoted to the practice of independent journalism in the public interest. For the last ten years, the Center has worked to improve the skills and working situation for rural, provincial and indigenous journalists in Guatemala, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, as well as to improve the coverage of Central America on U.S. public radio. An award-winning public radio journalist for over three decades, Martin developed ground-breaking programs and series for public radio, including NPR’s Latino USA, and Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars. She’s the recipient of Fulbright and several Knight Fellowships, including the John S. Knight Professional Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University, and the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for Democracy. Martin has won over two dozen awards for her work covering Latino issues and Latin America. She holds a Master’s degree in journalism from the Ohio State University. In September of 2015, Martin was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.