Obituary

Annette Martin Ozaltin died suddenly early morning on October 21, 2023, in a car crash on the Washington beltway, I-495, in Fairfax County, Virginia. She was 44. Living in Kingston, Jamaica, where she had recently moved, she had arrived the previous day for the 25th anniversary celebration of the graduation of her McLean High School class.

Annette was born April 4, 1979, to Luann Habegger Martin and Raymond Martin in Decatur, Indiana, and at the age of three weeks traveled to Ghana where her father was posted in the foreign service of the U.S. Agency for International Development. This was her initial introduction to a lifetime of adventure and service and her identity as a third culture kid. She became a true global citizen, having lived in nine countries, Ghana, Cameroon, the United States, Pakistan, Zaire (now D.R. Congo), Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and lastly Jamaica.

She showed early signs of outstanding talent and achievement, winning a reading competition in kindergarten and through high school where she was a class valedictorian and senior class prom queen. She graduated with high distinction with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia majoring in Sociology and English. From the Harvard University School of Public Health, she earned a Master of Science degree in Health Care Management, Study Design and Analysis.

Harvard is where she met Emre Ozaltin who was working on a doctorate in Health Economics. Their friendship grew into love, a five-year courtship of travel and adventure, and culminated in a wedding on the Turkish island of Bozcaada on June 22, 2013. Their marriage was blessed with two sons, Troy, age 8, and Phoenix, age 5.

Annette’s career choice as a global health specialist aligned with that of Emre and their work led them to New York City, Cambodia, Washington, DC, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, and recently to Jamaica. She began her adult career service as a management consultant for Deloitte, and then in several stints for Results for Development (R4D) as a Program Director, Academy for Educational Development (now FHI360), ThinkWell, and as a contractor for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She earned distinction in the field of health finance, helping poor countries structure their budgets for sustainable implementation of lifesaving vaccination programs against childhood diseases. Her pioneering work on a primary health care performance measurement framework is now being used by the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and various countries around the world.

Throughout her career, employers and colleagues valued her work ethic and technical excellence. She was a skilled people and project manager, strategic and analytical thinker on complex global health programs, technical writer, and effective facilitator and communicator. She built strong professional relationships and was widely beloved. She made work fun for those around her and was looked up to as a mentor, particularly by young women.

In Annette’s family and social life, she was a vivacious, loving, dedicated, responsible and fun mother and wife, a devoted daughter and sister, and faithful and dedicated friend, loved by all who knew her. She raised Troy and Phoenix to embody the values of globalism, service, kindness, and our shared humanity. She was a prominent organizer, a glue that connected both her immediate and extended families. She kept in close touch with her high school and university friends. She and Emre were at the center of a wide group of friends linked by their common focus on community, artistic expression, and social transformation.

Annette was preceded in death by her mother Luann, who died of cancer in 2015. She is survived by her husband Emre, sons Troy and Phoenix, father Raymond Martin of Springfield, Virginia, brother Gregory (Joanna) of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 15 aunts and uncles, and 25 cousins.