Blind since birth, Kathy Martinez is an internationally recognized disability rights leader with particular focus on employment, minority and gender issues. As WID's Deputy Director, Ms. Martinez is responsible for the development and supervision of all of WID's international technical assistance, employment and training projects.

She currently supervises the newly-awarded National Technical Assistance Center for Latinos with Disabilities, funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration, as well as the five-year International Disability Exchanges and Studies (IDEAS) for the New Millennium Project, funded by the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Through these projects, Martinez oversees the production of the bilingual international webzine, DisabilityWorld ( www.disabilityworld.org ) and a new website designed to connect U.S. based disabled Latinos to the world of employment ( www.proyectovision.net )

She has particular expertise in designing programs to meet the needs of minority disability populations. Martinez led WID's Central American Training Program, funded by USAID, providing independent living training for rehabilitation specialists and newly injured individuals from El Salvador and Honduras . She also initiated a WID community-based project to engage low-income minority women with HIV/AIDS in activating their own self-care programs. In 1997 Martinez was hired by the International Labor Organization to carry out a leadership development project with disabled women in Namibia .

Ms. Martinez led the collaborative interagency team that produced the acclaimed 1997 Leadership Forum for Women with Disabilities, attracting more than 600 participants from 80 countries to Washington , D.C. In 2000 she co-organized a seminar that brought more than 50 disabled, young women from 30 countries for advocacy training at UN headquarters in New York . She has participated in international training or development projects in China , Russia , Indonesia , Spain , Honduras , New Zealand , Korea , Namibia , Brazil , Hungary and Mexico .

In July 2002 Ms. Martinez was appointed by President George W. Bush as a member of the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency responsible for advising the President and Congress on disability policy.