Courtney E. Martin

Courtney E. Martin is an author, entrepreneur, and facilitator. She co-founded the Solutions Journalism Network and FRESH Speakers Bureau and has consulted with a wide variety of organizations — such as TED, the Aspen Institute, and The Sundance Institute — on how to make impactful, story-rich social change.

Martin has written or edited over five books, including The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream and Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists, and she writes frequently for The New York Times and the On Being Project, among other publications. She has appeared on “The TODAY Show,” MSNBC, and “The O’Reilly Factor” and speaks widely at conferences and colleges.

Courtney E. Martin has been called “one of our most insightful culture critics and one of our finest young writers” by Parker Palmer, and her writing has been described as “varied, transformational, and necessary for us all” by Jane Fonda and “a hardcover punch in the gut” by Arianna Huffington.

Courtney is a former editor at Feministing.com and the creator of The Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy. In addition, Courtney consults with social justice organizations throughout the nation, including the Paley Center for Media, Ms. Foundation for Women, the National Council for Research on Women, the Women’s Funding Network, The International Museum of Women, and The Women’s Therapy Centre Institute. She contributed the conclusion to the groundbreaking Shriver Report, released by the Center for American Progress.

Courtney is a recipient of the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics and in 2009 was a resident of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. She was a speaker at the inaugural TEDWomen Conference in December 2010 and her talk was subsequently published on TED.com.