Marta has worked with local and national social justice organizations for over a decade, leading and facilitating community engagement and leadership development programs with under-resourced neighborhoods and groups throughout the U.S. 

Using popular arts, popular culture and liberatory pedagogies (i.e. popular education), she has worked with children, youth and adults, helping individuals and communities:

• develop a vision for equity and change, 
• acquire the necessary skills and resources to take and lead action to attain such a vision, and 
• develop strategic campaigns to change laws and institutions to sustainably serve their community's and families' needs.

After supporting projects in areas including public education reform, parent organizing, youth leadership development, and migrant worker education and rights, Marta began exploring more deeply the role of personal story and trust building as the foundation for 'empowerment work'—the claiming of one's individual voice and personal power to make meaningful change.

In 2006 Marta certified with the Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators (ALACE) and The Farm Midwives as a doula/labor assistant and childbirth educator. A firm believer in holistic approaches, she sought to understand the relationship between women's health, well-being, empowerment and movement, beginning at childbirth. She actively volunteered at health clinics, arts centers and public schools (locally and in Latin America & the Caribbean), providing free belly dance and movement classes for immigrant women, pregnant women, trans women, community workers, teens, girls and boys. 

After putting her initial vision to work, Marta's classes developed into more specialized areas, including:

• using improvisational group dance to develop trust and communication among parents seeking to create a parent committee at under-resourced schools
• developing dance and movement activities with community workers to use in skills-building and consciousness-raising trainings
• using dance and movement to build trust, communication and collaboration among teachers at under-resourced schools
• using dance to create a safe space for teens to tell their story/talk about personal experiences, ask for guidance, and seek support in making decisions about their bodies, their identities, and their personal interests, and
• using dance to build self-esteem and support the healthy choices of girls and boys

Marta now provides specialty bilingual workshops to under-resourced communities (in the U.S., Latin America, & the Caribbean) using belly dance, creative movement and popular theater to support engagement, healing, leadership, community building and skills development among women, teens and girls. 

~ Sitar Center for the Arts
~ Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)
~ Clinica del Pueblo
~ Washington Free Clinic
~ Mandala Botanicals/Naturopathic Relief Clinic for Haitian Earthquake Victims
~ NeighborWorks America: Community Leaders and Organizers Symposium
~ Indigenous Leaders Training & Capacity Building, Puyo, Amazonas (Ecuador)
~ Marina Hoyle Elementary School, Lima (Peru)
~ Community Bridges
~ BloomBars
~ Dance for Community Engagement, San Juan (Puerto Rico)