Santrice R. Martin

Chief External Affairs Officer, Comer Education Campus

As a leader in the non-profit sector who stands at the intersection of driving organizational growth, cultivating exceptional talent, and delivering solutions for sustainability, she is committed to positively impacting the lives of the youth and the communities where they live and thrive. Her nearly 20-year career has spanned from community-based program design, implementation, and evaluation responsibilities at the American Cancer Society to leading revenue generation, marketing and communications, board engagement strategies at the Comer Education Campus.

Santrice’s unique career history has positioned her to understand both the mission delivery and business acumen components of the non-profit sector necessary for successful operations. Upon relocating from Florida, Santrice begin her public health career as a Health Initiatives Representative of the American Cancer Society. In this role, her responsibilities included developing community health equity programs, recruiting and managing volunteers, and leveraging the voice of the community toward advancing advocacy issues through campaigns such as Smoke Free Illinois. Her accomplishments included educating an average of 10,000 individuals annually, converting hundreds of volunteers into public health advocates, an increase of early detection of cancer diagnoses for many Black and Brown individuals, and the enactment of Smoke Free Illinois legislation. To have a larger impact toward creating health equity, Santrice joined the American Heart Association and soon was promoted to Senior Director of Multicultural Health Initiatives leading its mission delivery strategies. In this role, she managed the professional growth and development of 3 FTE’s, analyzed data and devised health equity strategies focusing on Black and Brown communities, and advised diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and procedures. Her accomplishments included two members being promoted internally, 50% of participates in a hypertension management program lowering their blood pressure, a diverse pipeline of board candidates and $250,000 of new revenue generated through diverse revenue streams.

To complement her exemplary experience in mission delivery, Santrice joined the Comer Education Campus as its Director of Advancement. In this role, Santrice leads the strategy and execution of financial resource development, marketing and communications, board engagement, and database systems. Her accomplishments include increasing the operating budget by 5% in the first year, leading a brand refresh marketing and communication multi-media strategy, and launching Salesforce as the centralized database system optimizing efficiency for the overall organization.

She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Health Care Management from Florida A&M University and her MBA-HCM at the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University. She has been honored as a Chicago Defender Woman of Excellence, featured in Black Enterprise Magazine, and recognized in the Black Excellence project as someone who is transforming lives. Santrice is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the South Shore Giving Circle which aims to cultivate philanthropy, empower communities, and to be of service to all mankind.