Emily Martinez

Emily Martinez is the director of Rights Initiatives at the Open Society Foundations. She currently oversees four global grantmaking programs on access to information, criminal justice, disability rights, and LGBTI rights.

Martinez has been with the Foundations since 1995. Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., Martinez was the director of the Budapest-based Human Rights and Governance Grants Program for the Foundations, where she helped promote the development of human rights and accountability groups in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. As the founding director of the program, Martinez developed expertise in a broad range of fundamental human rights issues in that region, as well as civil society’s role in promoting rule of law and accountable governance.

Martinez holds a MA in human rights from the University of Essex. She also graduated from Georgetown University with a BS in international affairs and developmental economics.