Professor Martinez is an enthusiastic educator and is committed to public engagement through the arts. In 2002, she envisioned a community mural course to provide students real-world experience to create, propose, and implement public art in the form of mural designs and site-specific painting throughout the Salt Lake City area. Martinez has received grants from The National Endowment for the Arts “Challenge America” through the Utah Arts Council, Utah Transit Authority, City of South Salt Lake, Salt Lake County, University of Utah Residential Living Center, Primary Children’s Medical Center, Department of Ballet, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, the Utah Division of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Esperanza Elementary School, Volunteers of America, Murray City & School District, and Salt Lake County. The grants have provided equipment and supplies to complete 46 murals as well as 204 student travel scholarships.

Kim’s commitment to innovation and exploration of teaching methodologies is exemplified by an interdisciplinary undergraduate experience at the University of Utah’s Taft -Nicholson Center in Centennial Valley, Montana. The immersive residency incorporates intellectual growth, experimental painting techniques, and introduction to the ecology of landscapes to foster development of unexpected ways of ideating the rugged landscape of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to impact students’ conceptual, formal, and sustainability processes.