board of trustees. Urban forestry in San Antonio Following flooding incidents in 1998 and 2003, Martinez turned her focus to urban forestry. She attended the 2003 National Urban Forest Conference, participated in tree inventories and tree plantings, and measured Champion Trees. In 2009, Martinez trained as a Texas master naturalist. In San Antonio, she worked with organizations dedicated to local creek cleanup. She conducted tours of Olmos Creek and monitored water quality through the citizen science testing initiative Texas Stream Team. After reading the San Antonio Climate Action & Adaptation Plan (CAAP) and finding nothing on trees and forestry, Martinez volunteered to help with the plan. Personal life Martinez married Brian Hughes, who she met as a fellow undergraduate at MIT. They had two sons. While living in Takoma Park, Maryland in 1991, Martinez was a member of a task force that created new election districts, leading to changes in the law allowing non-citizens to vote in city elections. Martinez and Hughes moved back to San Antonio in the 1990s. Beginning in the late 1990s, they started investing in high-tech companies in San Antonio. They also represented MIT by recruiting and interviewing students from the area. Martinez lives in Castle Hills. References External links Oil spill issues panel with Lissa Martinez on YouTube, MIT's Technology Day, 1993. Shipboard Waste Disposal: Taking Out the Trash Under the New Rules 1954 births Living people 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers Activists from San Antonio American marine engineers American mechanical engineers American women engineers Engineers from Texas American businesspeople Jefferson High School (San Antonio, Texas) alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni 20th-century American women 21st-century American women