Colombian-American futurist Martha Diaz (MD) is an award-winning social entrepreneur, multimedia producer, educator, archivist, and curator, committed to advancing social justice and equity through the transformative power of Hip-Hop culture, media, technology, and storytelling. In 2010, MD founded the Hip-Hop Education Center, where she serves as Executive Director, Chief Curator, and Archivist. Over the past 30 years, she has worked across the Hip-Hop entertainment industry, public arts, education, and academia, building bridges between public and private cultural and educational institutions.A globally recognized thought leader in education, community organizing, and mentoring, MD brings extensive experience in organizational development, interpersonal relations, networking, and event production. Through exhibitions and publications, including research reports, books, and curricula, she has documented and preserved Hip-Hop history to safeguard its cultural value and legacy. In 2002, MD founded the acclaimed Hip-Hop Odyssey (H2O) International Film Festival, the first of its kind. She was invited to curate the first Hip-Hop film series presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has served as a guest curator at the Museum of the Moving Image, The Schomburg Center, and The Hip-Hop Museum. MD has produced and consulted on numerous media projects, including Black August: A Hip-Hop Concert by dream hampton (2010), Nas: Time Is Illmatic by One9 (2014), and Dear Mama by Allen Hughes (2023).A graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study and Tisch School of the Arts’ Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, MD has worked on archival projects with Parkwood Entertainment (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter), the Tupac Shakur Estate, Ralph McDaniels’ Video Music Box Collection, The Paley Center for Media, The Hip Hop Museum, and A&E’s Hip-Hop Treasures TV series, among others. She has taught at NYU and Virginia State University (VSU) and was a visiting scholar at Virginia Union University. MD has held numerous fellowships, including Senior Fellow at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation – National Museum of American History, A’Lelia Bundles Community Scholar at Columbia University, Nasir Jones Fellow at Harvard University, Inaugural Fellow at the Center for Creative & Entertainment Arts at VSU, and MacArthur Civic Media Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. She currently serves as a senior producer for The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture.