Martha Darling

Martha Darling has held a variety of nonprofit leadership roles since retiring from the Boeing Company in 1998. She has consulted on education policy issues for the National Academy of Sciences and currently serves on the boards of the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund, Maverick Collective, Salzburg Global Seminar, Reed College, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and the National Committee for the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Her past service includes stints on the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, the Council on Foundations Community Foundations Leadership Team, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She is also the founding co-chair of the Washtenaw County, Michigan “Success by Six” early childhood initiative.

As a senior program manager at Boeing, Martha had assignments in 747 program management, government affairs, and Boeing’s corporate offices. Previously, she was Vice President for Strategic Planning at Seattle-First National Bank and Executive Director of the Washington Business Roundtable’s Education Study.

Martha is a graduate of Reed College in Oregon. After earning a master’s degree at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, she was based in Paris for several years as a freelance consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 1977 she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as a White House Fellow, working as executive assistant to Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blumenthal. She subsequently became senior legislative aide to U.S. Senator Bill Bradley.

In 2024, both she and her husband, Dr. Gilbert S. Omenn, were awarded honorary Ph.D. degrees by The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.