Gayla Martens
Master Teacher - Spanish
MeWaldt-Jensen 347
gayla.martens@northern.edu
Ms. Gayla Martens teaches Spanish via telecommunication technology. She interacts with high school language students throughout South Dakota from a studio on Northern's campus. Her teaching experience includes face-to-face instruction in parochial and public schools, as well as live interactive video communications, blended learning and asynchronous instruction at the high school. She occasionally serves as an adjunct professor for The Millicent Atkins School of Education at NSU.
She received the South Dakota World Language Teacher of the Year Award in 2010. From 2011-2016, she helped organize CultureFest, an event partnering the city of Aberdeen, NSU and high school students throughout South Dakota. In 2024 she was nominated to the South Dakota AFSP Chapter and continues to do grassroots work. In 2025 she created an Aberdeen-based non-profit support group, H.U.G.S. (Hope, Understanding Grief Support), for suicide loss survivors.
When she’s not teaching, volunteering, reading, walking her pups, or exercising at the Y with her Zumba crew, she’s most likely traveling, playing games, or watching sporting events with her family.
