AUSTIN, Texas – Grantmakers In Health has announced that Dr. Octavio N. Martinez, Jr., executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, will join its board of directors in 2014, immediately following the organization’s annual meeting in March.
Grantmakers In Health (GIH) is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to helping foundations and corporate giving programs improve the health of all people. Formally launched in 1982, GIH is known today as the professional home for health grantmakers, and as a resource for grantmakers and others seeking expertise and information on the field of health philanthropy.
Along with his position at the Hogg Foundation, Martinez is associate vice president for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, a clinical professor at The University of Texas at Austin, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
“We are very pleased that Dr. Martinez is joining the GIH board. He has always been supportive of GIH’s work, and it is wonderful to have this opportunity to work closely with him,” said Dr. Faith Mitchell, president and CEO of GIH. “Dr. Martinez’s insights, knowledge and professional ties will all be an important contribution to GIH’s ongoing mission of helping grantmakers improve the health of all people.”
Martinez has been a close partner with GIH over the past few years, participating in discussions on, among other topics, global mental health, geriatric mental health and integrated health care. He helped engineer a recent collaboration between GIH and the Hogg Foundation on the report, “A Window of Opportunity: Philanthropy’s Role in Eliminating Health Disparities through Integrated Health Care.” The report, published in August of 2013, was the product of a symposium sponsored by the Hogg Foundation the previous year.
“Joining the board is both an honor and a wonderful opportunity for me,” said Dr. Martinez. “At the Hogg Foundation we’ve long benefited from the expertise, leadership and friendship of Grantmakers In Health, and I look forward to participating even more directly in the important and innovative work the organization is doing.”
Before leading the Hogg Foundation, Martinez was a clinical psychiatrist at the Albemarle Mental Health Center and an associate professor at the Brody School of Medicine in North Carolina. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor and psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Martinez is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and has a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, a doctor’s degree in medicine from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration with a concentration in finance from The University of Texas at Austin.
Grantmakers In Health (GIH) is dedicated to helping foundations and corporate giving programs improve the health of all people. Its mission is to foster communication and collaboration among grantmakers and others, and to help strengthen the grantmaking community’s knowledge, skills and effectiveness.
The Hogg Foundation advances recovery and wellness in Texas by funding mental health services, policy analysis, research and public education. The foundation was created in 1940 by the children of former Texas Gov. James S. Hogg and is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin.