Marti Dinerstein gave crucial guidance to our organization from 2005 through 2010 as we grew from a small and obscure policy shop into a grassroots giant that major media credited with leading the battles that defeated the 2006 and 2007 Bush-Kennedy-McCain amnesties.
Marti was a pioneer for women in leadership positions for more than three decades. She was named Acting Director of the New York State Consumer Protection Board before the age of thirty. She was armed with an MBA when few women had them and ascended the corporate ladder at several prestigious financial institutions.
In her later career as a public policy expert, she conducted her own studies, was widely-quoted in national publications and broadcasts, and testified before Congress on immigration topics of document fraud, homeland security, and non-enforcement of labor laws.
She brought to the NumbersUSA Board table the wisdom from the experiences of her colorful and ground-breaking career in New York City where she became the first woman senior vice president in the 200-year history of the Bank of New York. Her obituary in the New York Times noted:
After graduating from Ohio State University, Marti brought her intellect, charm, infectious laugh and energy to New York and to public service, where she achieved the first of many successes."
She served as a research assistant to Mayor John Lindsay's speechwriter. She was executive assistant to Betty Furness at the New York State Consumer Protection Board. She was the program vice-president of the New York Junior League. And then, she went to Columbia University Business School for her MBA and began her career in marketing and corporate communications in the banking industry. After her work with the Bank of New York, she became a senior managing director of US Trust Company.
Her obituary stated that after retirement from US Trust:
. . . Marti began to write and speak nationally on many of the difficult issues relating to the country's immigration policy."
That work brought her to the attention of the NumbersUSA Board of Directors who persuaded her to become an active member until she moved to emeritus status in 2010 when she announced to us that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. For the first years after that, she courageously assisted Alzheimer's organizations by speaking at conferences as a person living with the disease. She is survived by her husband Bob Dinerstein who served on our board for a few years after Marti's diagnosis.
As a member of the Board, Marti provided important guidance and valuable oversight to the organization and its mission from her wide background in corporate communications and brand management and in immigration research. Additionally, she gave generously of her time and financial resources to support the work of the organization.
Marti is a dedicated citizen who volunteered her time in the name of sensible immigration policies and an American quality of life for future generations."-- from the NumbersUSA Board's Commendation
Marti was 74.
ROY BECK is Founder & President of NumbersUSA
