Dr. Josephine Martin served as the first Executive Director of the National Food Service Management Institute (NFSMI) from June 1, 1991, to August 31, 1996. When she came to the Institute, Dr. Martin had over 40 years of experience in school food service and program administration in the child nutrition field.
Her extensive experience in child nutrition programs covers having been an area school nutrition consultant with the Georgia Department of Education, a USDA regional nutritionist in the Southeast Region, and Georgia’s state child nutrition director. Prior to her retirement from the Georgia Department of Education in 1991, she worked as Director of School Nutrition Programs and Associate State Superintendent of Schools.
“Dr. Martin is a national leader in nutrition education,” said Catherine Bertini, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Food and Consumer Services. “Under the direction of such a dynamic professional, the Food Service Management Institute is well prepared to meet the many challenges of providing first-rate training and information to the nation’s child nutrition practitioners.”
Leadership Team in Place at National Food Service Management Institute. The Friday Letter. USDA Food and Nutrition Service. June 14, 1991.
“The NFSMI is a dream come true. This is a national resource center established to serve child and adult nutrition providers from Juneau to Miami and all spots in between,” wrote Dr. Martin in A Dream Come True, School Food Service Journal, October 1991.
Dr. Martin served as president of the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA, now the School Nutrition Association) 1976-77, and is a member of the Association of School Business Officials, the American Dietetic Association (ADA, now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics), the Georgia School Nutrition Association, and the Society of Nutrition Education. Dr. Martin has published a number of articles and monographs related to child nutrition. She is widely recognized as a strategic planner, visionary, legislative specialist, instructional specialist, and historian in child nutrition programs. She has made numerous professional presentations in national and state associations and organizations.
During her career, she assisted and testified before government committees at state and federal levels. She currently serves as an honorary advisor for the Georgia School Nutrition Association (GSNA). The GSNA annually awards the Josephine Martin Award of Excellence. Martin served as American School Food Service Association President for 1976-77. She is the co-editor of Managing Child Nutrition Programs: Leadership for Excellence, published in 1999 and revised in 2008.
Dr. Josephine Martin earned her Ph.D. at Georgia State University and a Master’s Degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York; she completed a dietetic internship at Duke University.
Dr. Martin has received an ADA Medallion Award; IFMA’s Silver Plate in School Food Service; the Tom O’Hearn Legislative Award; and the John Stalker Award for Distinguished Service in Child Nutrition. In 2006 she received the Gene White Lifetime Achievement Award for Child Nutrition given by the Child Nutrition Foundation. One former Congressional staff leader with whom she worked in the 1970s to achieve legislation that provided for the program expansion wrote a letter upon her selection of this Lifetime Achievement Award stating, “No unelected person played a larger, more intelligent and more constructive role in the principled expansion of our food and nutrition program than she did…never taking her eye off the prize of healthier, wiser, happier American children.”
Link to Dr. Josephine Martin Oral History and to Dr. Josephine Martin Papers.
Link to Dr. Josephine Martin and Dr. Jeanette Phillips Oral History Interview.