Martha Barrios Mead (1951-2017) was a passionate bilingual speech pathologist and diagnostician, and together with Executive Director Maritza Morelli, she was a key architect in the vision behind Los Niños Primero, implementing our first program in 1999.

Born in Chile, Martha came to the United States when she was just 12 years old, and she later went on to make a meaningful career as a speech pathologist serving

children in elementary schools in California and later in Cobb County, Georgia. For 17 years, we were fortunate enough to witness her love for education and the Latino community in Atlanta. Martha passed away after a 3-year battle with cancer in 2017, all the while serving on our Board of Directors and as a volunteer dedicated to expanding and implementing Los Niños Primero’s mission: creating lifelong learners in the preschool Latin American community in Georgia.

In 2018, as the first Los Niños Primero preschool students were college-aged and considering their academic futures, an endowment was established to cement Martha’s legacy: the Martha Barrios Mead Scholarship.

Eligibility Requirements:

To be eligible to become a Los Niños Primero Martha Barrios Mead Scholar you must be
a student who meets the following criteria.