Women of Impact: Dr. Nicole Martin of American Bible Society
Confident leader. Creative innovator. Inspiration to many.
Stewarding influence and pioneering collaborative efforts for strategic impact are among the themes that characterize the ministry and career of Rev. Dr. Nicole Martin, the Senior VP of Ministry Impact at American Bible Society. During Women’s History Month, we wanted to feature her as a Woman of Impact and highlight the work she is leading at American Bible Society in this video from a recent event at Blue Trust.
The opinions expressed in the video are those of the speaker and not necessarily those of Blue Trust.
Currently, Dr. Martin’s service in ministry impact with American Bible Society includes overseeing all international and domestic Bible ministries. This includes Bible Translation, Trauma Healing, Armed Services, Digital Bible, and Bible distribution. Under her leadership, American Bible Society teams are currently engaged in Ukraine outreach effort through their global ministry of providing healing and hope through God’s Word. The ministry has teams on the front lines of the refugee crisis, helping partner organizations and local churches responding to the tremendous needs of Ukrainians fleeing for safety to Poland and other countries in Europe.
Dr. Martin also oversees Trauma Healing at the American Bible Society, a program that equips pastors and laypeople with tools and resources to help people explore their heart wounds and heal in their own communities. “Sometimes trauma and crisis can cause people to turtle—to turn in on themselves, to poke their head back in the shell, and to ignore the things happening around. It’s a protective mode,” Martin explains. “But for the believer in Christ, the question should be: When trauma happens, will we turtle and turn in, or will we reach out and will we become the place of healing for the world?” The Trauma Healing program is active in 129 countries and has been translated into 173 languages. To date, over 10,000 people have been trained as Trauma Healing facilitators and over 200,000 people have joined Trauma Healing groups.
Dr. Martin is passionate about encouraging other women to fulfill their God-given potential. She authored the book, Made to Lead: Empowering Women for Ministry, with the goal of equipping women with the internal confidence and external tools necessary to strengthen them for God’s calling. “So often, as women, we enter ministry with doubts about God’s ability to use us, insecurities about our weaknesses, and deficient models of leadership to help us to chart our own paths,” asserts Martin. “This book is a reminder to every emerging and current leader that God equips those he calls. Being a woman in leadership is not something you have to compensate for; it’s a gift to be maximized for God’s glory and for the good of the organizations we serve.”
She also authored Leaning In, Letting Go: A Lenten Devotional, which takes readers on a hope-filled journey of leaning into God’s grace and letting go of all that keeps us from experiencing the joy of resurrection.
God certainly equipped Dr. Martin with unique and wide-ranging educational experiences that prepared her to engage in impactful efforts across the U.S. and around the world. Born and educated in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Martin graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University. She received her Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary where she was the recipient of the Jones Prize in Music and the Swink Prize in Preaching. During her time in seminary, she served as the Director of Evangelism at St. James AME Church in Newark, New Jersey and spent a summer in ministry at Mandalay Baptist Church in Cape Town, South Africa. She earned a Doctor of Ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with an emphasis on African American Redemptive Leadership.
Dr. Martin is an adjunct professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte. She is active in ministry at Kingdom Fellowship AME Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she supports the Discipleship Ministry. She has been inducted into the prestigious Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College. Her writings have been featured in USA Today, Christianity Today, and The Charlotte Observer, which listed her among the “Top Seven to Watch in 2011.” She was also named one of the “Top 40 Under 40 for 2017” by the Charlotte Business Journal.
She is married to her best friend, Dr. Mark Martin, and they have two wonderful daughters, Addison and Josephine. Above all, she has a passion for God, a contagious excitement for the Gospel, and an insatiable desire for God to be glorified in her life and in the world.
At Blue Trust, we are honored to work with donors who support exceptional ministries such as American Bible Society that are helping fulfill the Great Commission, and we are grateful to cheer on women of impact who are investing their talents across the globe to influence lives for eternity.