A native Texan and licensed psychiatrist, Dr. Martinez is the fifth executive director and the first Hispanic to lead the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health since its creation in 1940. The foundation’s grants and programs support mental health services, research, policy analysis and public education projects in Texas.  As chief executive officer, he oversees the vision, mission, goals, strategic planning and day to day operations of the foundation.  The Hogg Foundation is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin.  Dr. Martinez holds an appointment of Associate Vice-President within the division; he is also a clinical professor with an appointment in the university’s School of Social Work; and holds an adjunct professor appointment at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry.  His academic interests include minority health, health disparities, and workforce issues.

In addition to his administrative and academic duties, he currently serves on the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities.  He has formerly served on the IOM’s Committee on the Governance and Financing of Graduate Medical Education and on the Committee on the Mental Health Workforce for Geriatric Populations.  Dr. Martinez also serves on the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services.  He is the chair of the board of the National Hispanic Council on Aging, chair of the board for the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, and committee chair for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission – Behavioral Health Integration Advisory Committee.  He is a commissioner on the Supreme Court of Texas Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families and a member of the University of Texas – University Charter School Advisory Board.  Dr. Martinez is also a member of the board of directors for Trust for America’s Health, Grantmakers in Health and a member of the editorial board for the Home Health Care Services Quarterly Journal.  He is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of The American College of Psychiatrists, a member of the American College of Mental Health Administration, the National Hispanic Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, and the Texas Society for Psychiatric Physicians.  From 2002 to 2006 he served as a Special Emphasis Panel Member for the National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

In 2015, Dr. Martinez was inducted into The Philosophical Society of Texas and received the 2015 Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians award in Psychiatric Excellence.   He was awarded a Shining Lights Award for Excellence in Hispanic Mental Health Advocacy and Leadership in 2012 by the National Resource Center for Hispanic Mental Health and he is a recipient of the 2008 Adolph Meyer, M.D. Research Award in recognition of contributions in minority health and efforts to improve the mental health of all citizens regardless of socioeconomic status by The Center for Health Care Services.  Dr. Martinez is licensed to practice medicine in Texas and North Carolina and is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Prior to joining the foundation in 2008, Dr. Martinez was a clinical psychiatrist at the Albemarle Mental Health Center and an affiliate associate professor at the Brody School of Medicine in North Carolina.  He was part of a team that created a 24-Hour Crisis Unit at Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, North Carolina to serve a 10 county catchment area that includes the Outer Banks.   Before that he was an assistant professor and psychiatrist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and a Faculty Associate with the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics.  In San Antonio he served as Director of Psychiatric Consultation/Liaison Services for University Hospital and the Audie L. Murphy Veterans Administration Hospital.  He also was Co-Director of Behavioral Sciences for the UTHSCSA medical school, and developed two community psychiatric clinics for underserved areas of San Antonio.

Before entering medical school, Dr. Martinez worked in commercial real estate, banking, and finance.  As a commercial real estate banker in Austin, Texas, he managed business parks, office buildings, and large tracts of commercial real estate.  He 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, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in business administration with a concentration in finance from The University of Texas at Austin.  He was Chief Resident during his psychiatric training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and is an alumnus of The Commonwealth Fund/Harvard University Fellowship in Minority Health Policy at Harvard Medical School.

Recent Scholarly Works/Publications: 

Sprager, L., Martinez, O.N. 2015. Beyond Translation: Promoting a New National Standard for Equity in Health Materials Translated from English. Commentary, National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC.

Sanchez, K., Ybarra, R., Chapa, T., & Martinez, O.N. Eliminating Behavioral Health Disparities and Improving Outcomes for Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations.  Psychiatric Services in Advance (doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201400581). 

IOM (Institute of Medicine), 2014. Graduate Medical Education That Meets the Nation’s Health Needs, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. [Note: Member of the authoring committee.] 

Sanchez, K., Chapa, T., Ybarra, R., & Martinez, O.N. Eliminating Health Disparities through Culturally and Linguistically Centered Integrated Health Care: Consensus Statements, Recommendations, and Key Strategies from the Field.  Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Volume 25, Number 2, May 2014, pp. 469-477.

Psychotropic Medication Utilization Parameters for Foster Children (2013). Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. [Note: Member of the Ad Hoc Working/Authoring Group.]

Sanchez, K., Chapa, T., Ybarra, R., & Martinez, O.N. (2012). Enhancing the Delivery of Health Care: Eliminating Health Disparities Through a Culturally and Linguistically Centered Integrated Health Care Approach. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

Sanchez, K., Chapa, T., Ybarra, R., & Martinez, O.N. (2012). Eliminating Disparities Through the Integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care Services for Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Including Populations with Limited English Proficiency: A Review of the Literature. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health and the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

IOM (Institute of Medicine), 2012. The Mental Health and Substance Use Workforce for Older Adults: In Whose Hands? Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. [Note: Member of the authoring committee.]