DeAndre Martin Takes the Helm as CEOs for Tomorrow’s New CEO: A Continuum of Support (Part 1 of 2)
DeAndre Martin gained his experience working in education and economic development areas in Oklahoma City.
by Jonathan Gramling
DeAndre Martin, who has become the new CEO of CEOs of Tomorrow — replacing Dr. Roxie Hentz, the founder of CEOs who recently retired — comes out of a community whose history reflects the dynamics that happened to many urban Black communities in the 1950s – 1970s.
“My journey started in Northeast Oklahoma City, a traditionally African American town that was once very rich in culture and economics,” Martin said. “And over the years, different things happened. In the 1950s and 1960s, you started to get disinvestment in the community and it declined over time. I wasn’t around then, but I get to hear all of the stories on how rich the community was. Our story is an urban renewal story that a lot of cities around the country share. Highways split the community in half. There were family-owned businesses and things like that back during that time.”
Martin’s saving grace was his grandmother.
“I was adopted by my grandmother, “ Martin said. “And she drove me south to go to school in a suburb called Moore. I didn’t think about it. I just thought that someone took you to school and you can go to school anywhere. I had a great experience. I went to the University of Oklahoma on a track scholarship and got to graduate from there. I got a human relations degree with a minor in economics. I left there and couldn’t find a job as many college students experience.”
It was Martin’s degree in economics — and human resources —that probably eventually led the way to his life’s calling: human and community development.
“I ended up landing as an executive assistant at the largest, locally-owned real estate development firm in the state,” Martin said. “It was a family-run business. And he was just building out his multi-family portfolio. So it was really just my boss and me. We had five apartments that we managed. And then we were building two more. I got to see it from the very beginning to the very end of how projects are put together and the roles that architects and construction crews play. It was really fun.”
And while doing this work, Martin crossed paths with Northeast OKC Renaissance, which was working to return Martin’s community to its former glory.
“Speaking of the time when it was economically rich and culturally vibrant, this non-profit was started to bring that back, to be a catalyst for economic development,” Martin said. “And I had never heard of them. I went, ‘Oh, this is so cool. I want to help out. It’s in the neighborhood. So I started volunteering with them. About a year later, they did a lot of community engagement work and wanted to get more people involved in doing things. The first idea they had was through real estate development. So I left my job and helped them create what was called PlaceKeepers. It’s a real estate development training program for community members. We went from beginning to the end on how to do a small, incremental development project. I did that part-time for five years.”
The other half of Martin’s time was taken up with the community’s innovation district.
“I led our STEM education workforce development and then external partnerships,” Martin said of the innovation district. “It was the practical and theoretical that stretched all sides of my brain and experience. I had a lot of great mentors and opportunities in Oklahoma City. And so at the innovation district, we had a fund called our STEM Education and Workforce Development Fund, which we shortened to Innovation Academy. With that, we had about $350,000 a year where we were able to seed local non-profits to do STEM education or workforce development work. What we were really trying to do is create a continuum of care from kindergarten through the workforce. We had touch points with community members to help guide them into the industries. But the city and the state were heavily investing in it for a few years. I spent three years doing that.”
And then Martin returned to Northeast OKC Renaissance to continue his community development work.
“The organization had grown tremendously,” Martin said. “We did real estate. We got into small business, starting some accelerators and things like that. And then towards the end of my time there, we were starting a revolving loan fund. Hopefully that will become a community development finance institution at some point. I really got to see that blossom. I went there to help our executive director professionalize the organization and get things in order.”
While Martin was working in Oklahoma City, his partner was earning a Ph.D. from UW-Madison.
“She actually worked with some teens in CEOs for Tomorrow,” Martin said. “She said, ‘You need to follow this organization because they are doing such great work. What you are trying to do with this model of taking people over time through programs is something that you can get a model from. I was like, ‘Yeah. Thank you.’ So I followed the organization during that time. I took some things that I thought were really cool.”
It could be that Martin’s partner had their future in mind.
“My wife knows me well,” Martin observed. “She was like, ‘This would be the perfect opportunity for you because it brings your community development work and work on the fringes of education together. This blends all of those together into one.’ And getting to see young people dream and my thoughts about how they change their families and their communities is amazing.”
When the CEO position at CEOs of Tomorrow came open, Martin’s wife encouraged him to apply.
“I thought, ‘They aren’t going to hire anyone from Oklahoma City,’” Martin recalled. “But I put my hat in the ring. I went through one interview after another. I got to come to Madison and I couldn’t be happier to be connected to Dr. Hentz’s baby and dream and be thought of as a worthy successor of all of the work that she has done.”
And Martin is committed to helping Madison’s communities grow and prosper.
“I am a social entrepreneur and a community developer,” Martin said. “I think in our communities there is a place and time when people had economics within our communities and it has been drained out over time. I think we are starting to see the resurgence of it when you see what the Urban League is doing here in Madison, the Black Chamber and all of the other organizations on the fringe of the entrepreneurship movement. Some say resurgence. How do we back that down into a younger generation. In other communities, you get it through osmosis. You have an uncle, cousin, mom or dad who are doing business. So you just pick these things up. How do we get that same kind of osmosis to people who don’t have that in their family? We can do it through the community.”
CEOs of Tomorrow is the perfect place for Martin to be at this time, a place where he can use his education and economic development background to incubate the next generation of entrepreneurs.
“In my mind, CEOs for Tomorrow is more than a program,” Martin said. “It’s about really giving students early access to tools that will really change their lives and could change their families’ lives for generational wealth. We teach the steps of growing your business. We provide a safe place to fail. I think all of us adults know what it feels like to fail at something. But we make it difficult for kids to fail. It’s almost like you get punished for failing. But in life we see that it hurts, but you get to dust yourself off and get back on a path that you want. You learn from it. Having a safe space, it’s like, ‘Hey it’s alright. Things don’t always work out like you want them to. Rarely do they work out like you want them to. But there is always a path for you. As long as you keep moving forward, there is a path.’ Having that safe place where you can get those experiences early and realize that this is an opportunity for them and internalize that no matter what they do once they get out of high school that the world is theirs. And these are different tools that they can use to make it that way.”