Who We Are
DR. PEDRO NOGUERA - PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
DR. EDWARD FERGUS - CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
MARTHA DIAZ - FOUNDING DIRECTOR / CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Martha Diaz is a community organizer, media producer, archivist, social entrepreneur, and an Adjunct Professor at NYU's Gallatin School. Diaz has been dedicated to innovating communities, advancing social justice, cultivating leaders and artists, and mentoring youth for nearly 20 years. Her intuition for success can be traced back to her days as an aspiring production assistant for the late Ted Demme, the seminal TV and film producer/director behind Yo! MTV Raps. Diaz's extensive production experience working with groundbreaking directors, producers and artists, and her aptitude of coming up with fresh ideas and solutions, would land her the role of casting/talent director, creative producer, associate producer, and documentary consultant on commercials, music videos, magazine/edutainment shows, documentaries, and multimedia web projects. Diaz has worked with MTV, The Hakuhodo Agency, African Heritage Network, Americans for the Arts, Classic Concept, 88HipHop, Source-All-Access, Black Filmmaker Foundation, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, SONY and PBS. Diaz produced and directed, H2O [Hip-Hop Odyssey], a short documentary on the evolution and global impact of the multiple elements of Hip-Hop culture. Executive Produced by the RZA, founder of the Wu-Tang Clan, H2O was screened at numerous Hip-Hop events, film festivals and educational institutions. In 2002, Diaz formed the H2O International Film Festival, and subsequently, developed the H2Ed [Hip-Hop Education] Summit and the non-profit Hip-Hop Association [H2A].
For ten years, Diaz served as president and executive director of the award winning H2A. She launched H2ONewsreel, the first Hip-Hop media distribution label dedicated to the education field, in collaboration with Third World Newsreel. Diaz co-created-and-edited the Hip-Hop Education Guidebook, Vol.I with Marcella Runell Hall. In 2008, she launched the Womanhood Learning Project as an intervention strategy to empower women in Hip-Hop, as a result she is developing the Fresh, Bold and So Def Women transmedia project. As a resident of NJPAC's Alternate Routes Residency Program, Diaz developed the Ladies First Fund, the first micro-grant for women social entrepreneurs. As an NYU Graduate student, she founded the Hip-Hop Education Center, in partnership with the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Diaz has been invited to participate as a curator, moderator, and workshop facilitator at numerous conferences and global forums, including: The Field Museum Hip-Hop and Social Change Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison Spoken Word and Hip-Hop Training Institute, U.N. Week, Family and Community Violence Prevention National Conference, Barcelona's World Youth Forum, The New School Rose and Erwin S. Wolfson Center for National Affairs Speaker's Series, Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame, and Council on Foundations. She is the recipient of the Black Lily Emerging Leader Award, Union Square Arts Award, Mary Chung NIA Award, and the Kool Herc Award. In 2010, Diaz was selected as one of Women's eNews distinguished 21 Leaders for the 21st Century and was featured in Lifetime's Remarkable Woman campaign. She currently serves as a Leadership Newark Fellow (class of 2013).