We're on the phone with Areva Martin after she's just done a spot on "Access Hollywood," commentating on possible criminal charges in Prince's death. Earlier in the week she was on "Good Morning America" talking about David Hasselhoff's alimony woes. She'll do another national TV hit in a few hours. All of this in addition to her gig as a panelist on the nationally syndicated "The Doctors"; an in-development primetime series for Fox; authoring books; speaking out as an activist; her Special Needs Network, a non-profit that raises awareness of issues that impact people with autism and similar disabilities in underserved communities; and her award-winning law career.
Where do Martin's multi-disciplinary talents and drive to succeed come from? Take a glance at her resume, and you'll think you have it figured out: the prestigious University of Chicago and iconic Harvard University, where she earned her law degree. But to get to the true source of what makes her who she is, you'll have to look back a little further to an unlikely place: a North St. Louis housing project called Carr Square Village.
"A lot of single [-parent] families, a lot of single moms, single grandparents raising their kids, and it was a pretty tough neighborhood," recalls Martin. "Lots of folks impacted by drugs and violence. But I was fortunate and blessed to have in my home, in my little tiny apartment, a grandmother who I was living with who was a paraplegic, her name was Suzanne, and my godmother Ethel, these two women, despite really limited educational background and financial resources, were the epitome of what you think of when you think of Americans who are resilient. They were just hard-working, positive, optimistic women, and they didn't let their circumstances define their happiness or their outlook on life, and they imparted that to me, and one of the things that I live by today is a work ethic that was imparted to me. "
For Martin, it was a simple case of "watch and learn."
"I just watched them work," she says. "My godmother was what they'd call now a housekeeper or a janitor. She cleaned offices, and she worked in the morning, she'd come home, and then she'd come back home at night. After school I would often go with her to clean offices and I watched her use that job, that I know paid whatever minimum wage was, below that, and save money to just help pay for what was a Catholic high school that I attended. She would send me little care packages when I went off to college. ... I love the women in that community, the people in that community, that wraps its arms around its members and nurtured and supported and loved, and that's the family that I know and the family that I will always be connected to."
She has raised millions of dollars for autism and is leading the SNN on a campaign to build California's first autism medical health home for kids as a part of the historic Martin Luther King Hospital health campus in Los Angeles. "We're coming into a medical desert, South Los Angeles," Martin says. The SNN has already launched ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) direct intervention services, bring premiere car to children who traditionally would not have access to it. A goal, she says, is "to get the clinic up and running and then promote this clinic as a model that can be replicated throughout the country, showing the country who a community-based heath clinic like ours can to do to address families holistically."
As far as Martin's media career, the most exciting on the horizon is the aforementioned Fox show, but it's one thing the affable lawyer can't be too talkative about yet. "We're just waiting for them to announce the premiere dates," she says. "It's as close to a go as there is Hollywood."
