ABOUT

Marta Miranda-Straub is a Cuban American leader, consultant, educator, and author with more than 45 years of experience in organizational and clinical social work. She immigrated to the United States at age 12 after her family received political asylum. Her work has spanned executive leadership, higher education, psychotherapy, fundraising, community organizing, advocacy, and leadership development.

​

Through her national consulting practice, Catapult Now LLC, Marta helps nonprofit and for-profit organizations grow their people and strengthen their work. Her services include organizational and leadership development, board development, executive coaching, strategic planning, retreats, facilitation, and training. She also speaks at professional conferences, fundraisers, and galas and serves as a part-time professor in the University of South Florida’s Master of Social Work program in Tampa.

​

Marta served as president and CEO of The Center for Women and Families until her retirement in February 2018. The $6 million nonprofit supports survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault and their families throughout Kentuckiana. Before joining The Center, she spent 22 years at Eastern Kentucky University as an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Social Work, with leadership roles in Women and Gender Studies and Multicultural Student Affairs.

​

In June 2020, Governor Andy Beshear appointed Marta commissioner of Kentucky’s Department for Community Based Services. She led an agency with more than 4,500 employees and a $1 billion budget, serving children, adults, and families across all 120 Kentucky counties. Its responsibilities included child welfare, adult protection, human trafficking services, adoption, and foster care. Marta returned to retirement and consulting in March 2023.

​

Marta is a published scholar and poet whose work appears in both English and Spanish. Her bilingual memoir, Cradled by Skeletons: A Life in Poems and Essays, was published by Shadelandhouse Modern Press in 2019. Her illustrated children’s book, Lullaby for Maddie, followed in November 2022, and her poem “The Reckoning” appeared in Sarabande Books’ anthology Once a City Said in spring 2024. Her latest illustrated children’s book, Spirits in His Hair was released during Hispanic Heritage Month 2026 as a fundraiser for Wigs for Kids.

 

Marta lives and plays in Gulfport, Florida, with her husband, Cary Jude Straub, and their two rescue dogs, Layla and Daisy Go Slow.