Biography
Dr. Martha Acosta is a sought-after speaker, facilitator, and expert in Human and Organizational Learning and the author of Safety Capacity: Leadership Practices for Failing Safely. She is the president and CEO of Martica Safety Strategy, which helps global energy, defense, and manufacturing companies transform their leadership cultures and drive operational safety and performance. She is member of the HOP HUB Consortium with other thought leaders in the Human and Organizational Performance movement, and a valued contributor to Harvard Business Impact, as a highly-requested facilitator for their leadership development programs.
Dr. Acosta previously led the Human Performance Improvement Team for the nuclear facilities at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), where she helped develop a national safety initiative for the Department of Energy and won LANL's Director's Achievement Award. Before joining LANL, she led the design and delivery of global leadership programs for a division of News International in the United Kingdom. She began her career in Silicon Valley helping fast-growing technology companies build the sales and support capacity needed to commercialize their innovative solutions.
Dr. Acosta models purpose-driven leadership as a board director and trustee. She serves as Secretary on the board of the LANL Foundation, which supports under-served students in Northern New Mexico. She also chairs the Trustee and Governance, and Presidential Review Committees of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico, a historically and academically important college. She previously held leadership positions on the Board of Homewise, a non-profit affordable housing developer and mortgage bank. She was a Founding Member of Santa Fe County Professional Women for Good.
Dr. Acosta earned her Doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University in Washington D.C. Both her Master degrees (an MBA and an MA) were completed at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She completed a Post-Graduate Certificate in Instructional Systems Development at San Francisco State University. Her undergraduate studies included language, philosophy, math, and science. She graduated from St. John's College with a multidisciplinary Bachelor of Arts.
Dr. Acosta lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband, an award winning director and stunt coordinator, and several pets. They hike, bike, ski, and enjoy the city's many opportunities to engage in the arts and sciences.
