DeAndre Martin knows that people’s early experiences help shape who they become, and he’s determined to provide expansive educational and enrichment opportunities for Madison-area youth as executive director of CEOs of Tomorrow.
With roots in Oklahoma City focusing on economic development, STEM education programming and workforce development, Martin hasn’t lost any time since taking on his new role in February, balancing the legacy of founder Roxie Hentz with transformative plans for the organization’s future. We spoke with Martin about his unique approach and what lies ahead.
You’ve had a lot of past successes, particularly in the nonprofit sphere. What have some of your biggest career takeaways been so far?
Early in my career, I had a lot of time on my hands and not a lot of personal responsibilities, so I was like, how can I get involved? Growing up, I was adopted by my grandmother, and we were always volunteering or doing something, so as an adult, I carried that along.
As you get into adulthood, you really have to find your way and seek out those opportunities. I think I was very diligent about (asking), “How do I give back and plug into my community?” I volunteered randomly. I would say yes to a lot of things I probably shouldn’t have said yes to, overworked myself at times.
But I think it gave (me) a chance at a young age for people to see my work ethic, my skill set, the knowledge that I have, and then for me to gain knowledge and to work with some really dynamic individuals and leaders in Oklahoma City — build that rapport, build that relationship.
Age is nothing but a number. Say yes a lot, and try to add value in places where a lot of people might not.
What drew you to Madison and your current role? Has working with youth always been part of your focus, or is that a more recent development?
It is a recent development. I grew up in northeast Oklahoma City, a predominantly African American side of town. When I was adopted by my grandmother, she drove me about 20-30 minutes south every morning to go to school, and I never thought anything of it. I had some of the greatest friends that I’m still friends with today, I had great teachers, a great education.
(Later), I went to my grandmother, and I said, “Hey, why did you take me to the suburbs to go to school? Why didn’t you put me into schools in the neighborhood?” And she’s like, “Because I didn’t think that you would get the educational opportunities that I think you deserve.”
It was such an eye-opening experience. I had never thought of that. … As you get older, you see how the school system works, and then family dynamics. Everybody doesn’t have a grandmother that will wake up at 5 or 6 a.m. to go to school every morning. So that was my impetus for starting to get into education work. I got a much broader lens of how our educational system works, how nonprofits fit in, how student achievement was.
CEOs of Tomorrow has such a rich tradition of youth programming — are there areas that you hope to develop further?
We’re moving into the Black Business Hub, so that opens up a tremendous amount of doors. … It will give our students a good eye to see different people in different organizations — we’re out on an island right now. Those natural synergies and collaborations … I’m very excited about those opportunities.
The second order of business will be to expand our curriculum programming. We do have our incubator, and I think in the future we’ll be able to do more specialization-type incubators. Right now, (they cover) entrepreneurship as a whole. In the future, we’re looking at doing real estate development — that is where my background comes from in Oklahoma City.
Also, we’re looking at other specializations. The Hub has a commercial kitchen, so can we have a culinary program? We’re really going deep into what students’ interests are and giving them an opportunity to engage with us more.
Then, we have our in-school programs, and those are from fourth to eighth grade. We would love to grow those programs, to be able to support more schools, so that’s something that we’ll be looking at.
And finally, our global and international initiatives.We’ll be bringing on more schools to participate, more international schools to participate in our International Academy (a course that virtually connects teens with high schoolers abroad to explore business principles). We currently have (students from) Spain, The Gambia, but we’re looking at Botswana, Germany, Qatar and India to also add in.
We’ll also be expanding our international Global Excursions program. Right now, we have partnerships in The Gambia to take students there — we’ll be taking a group of students in the summer of 2026 — but can we add more countries to that list, and really give students who wouldn’t have the opportunity to travel internationally that opportunity at an early age?
What’s on the horizon for the Building Tomorrow campaign as you anticipate the move to The Hub?
We are raising $466,000 for our office in the building, and we are naming it the Dr. Roxie Hentz International Center for Youth Entrepreneurship. … We definitely wanted to honor Dr. Hentz and the legacy that she has put into the community of Madison and abroad.
We’re creating a model that we hope will be able to impact students across the country and internationally. So with our curriculum, with our programming, how do we expand from our location at The Hub? How do we expand out to be able to serve more communities, serve more students?
We have a number of success stories of students who are further ahead in their careers at a young age than they might have been without our program. … We’re investing in young people to be good stewards of the community that we’ve built here in Madison, and we’re training up that next generation to follow in those footsteps.
We just want (local businesses) to be aware of us and to invest somehow — time, knowledge and definitely dollars.
