Martina Kohl is a lecturer, writer and Public Diplomacy specialist. For three decades, she worked in the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Germany where she coordinated the Embassy's Germany-wide expert speaker program, teacher outreach and curriculum development. She has been teaching regularly in the American Studies program at Humboldt Universität Berlin. She has also taught in the Journalism program at HMKW Berlin, at the Obama Institute at Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz and at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. In addition to her scholarly publications, she is author of a fictional memoir, "FAMILY MATTERS - Of Life in Two Worlds" (English & German, PalmArtPress Berlin, 2023). In January 2025, she started the "Occasional Blog" where she posts on German/European-U.S. related issues. She served as Deputy and General Editor of the American Studies Journal, a peer-reviewed open-access journal that focused on the intellectual debate of social, cultural, and political life in the U.S.A. (2007-2021). Her awards include the Hans Eberhard Piepho Prize (2013), the "Ausgezeichnete Orte - Land der Ideen" Award (2015), the U.S. State Department's "Secretary's Career Achievement Award" and "The Ambassador's Retirement Recognition Award" (2023). She serves on the advisory board of the Salzburg Global Seminar American Studies Association (SSASA). She holds an M.A. and a Dr. Phil. in American Studies, English Studies and History from Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz. Martina studied at Florida Southern College (1980-81) and taught and conducted research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (1985-90). She is a Fellow of Salzburg Global and serves on the American Studies Program Advisory Committee.