Newark native, education advocate and veteran investigative journalist Barbara Martinez has been named the New Jersey Children’s Foundation‘s new executive director. Martinez takes over for Kyle Rosenkrans, who founded NJCF more than five years ago.
“As an unrelenting advocate for breaking down the walls of education inequity, Barbara is the perfect person to carry on the mission and work of NJCF,” Rosenkrans said. “NJCF has made great strides in ensuring a fact-based discussion of public education and investing in people, organizations and systems that helped arm our community with the information they need to advocate for the quality education our children deserve. I look forward to seeing NJCF evolve to meet the new and lingering challenges we face.”
The plan is for Rosenkrans to join NJCF’s board.
“All of Newark’s children deserve to go to schools where they feel safe and are prepared and encouraged to lead the life they design for themselves,” Martinez said. “NJCF has spent the past five years moving that vision forward, and I look forward to building onto that work in my new role.”
Martinez joins NJCF from Uncommon Schools, where for the past 11 years she was its media relations chief. Uncommon runs North Star Academy Charter School, the largest charter network in New Jersey, serving over 6,300 K-12 students across 14 Newark campuses.
Prior to Uncommon, Martinez was an award-winning investigative reporter at the Wall Street Journal, where her beats included public education. She is a co-founder and former president of the board of the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School, known as HoLa, a Spanish immersion charter school that her children attended, and sits on the board of the New Jersey Public Charter School Association.
