About our Namesake

Martha was with  ECI Project TYKE for 28 years. In her 40 years as an educator, she served as a  Early Intervention Specialist, teacher of students with auditory impairments, early childhood special education teacher and a kindergarten teacher.

ECI core principles are grounded in the child and the child’s family unit. Under Martha’s innovative leadership, the ECI Project TYKE program developed a group coaching model incorporating parent, child, and provider. Due to the high rate of success with the group model especially in the autistic population,  the team was requested to host numerous trainings for other ECI programs in the state.  

Additionally, Martha was the Chair of the Texas Council of ECI Program Directors Consortia. This position allowed her to coordinate the Texas ECI program directors with the state staff of Texas Health and Human Services. Martha served on the Katy ISD Special Education Leadership Team coordinating the transition of  District’s Part C students to Part B programming.  She has also worked with various Texas legislators and Texans Care for Children to assist in the development of initiatives and legislation benefiting ECI children. Recently, Martha was honored with a position on the board of the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards.  

Former and current Project TYKE parents and staff have shared that Martha has led with compassion, respect and professionalism.  During her tenure, Katy ISD’s Project TYKE earned the reputation as one of the best ECI programs in the state of Texas.  This entailed fiscal and programmatic state compliance, quality assurance, interviews with families and stakeholders, and state coming to observe provider sessions with families.  

Martha was married for 42 years to Ron Aki (deceased) and has two sons, one of whom graduated from Katy High School.  

She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Special Education and Education of Hearing Impaired Students from Trinity University.  Her post graduate studies were completed at the University of Houston with an emphasis in Elementary Education.