
Dr. Martin’s career in higher education began as a professor of social work with University of South Florida in Tampa. She then transitioned to the School of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, serving as a professor and later as associate dean. Dr. Martin retired from the University of Connecticut in 1999 as a professor emerita.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Martin was the author of two books: the textbook, Oral History in Social Work (SAGE Publications, Inc, 1995), as well as Beatrice’s Ledger: Coming of Age in the Jim Crow South (University of South Carolina Press, 2022), a memoir about her mother that she wrote alongside her daughter, Vivian Martin, a journalism professor with Central Connecticut State University.
Dr. Martin was a graduate of historically Black Tuskegee University in Alabama. She received her master’s degree in social work and her doctorate in education from the University of Connecticut.

