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Carmel Martin was confirmed as assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the Department of Education by the U.S. Senate on May 1, 2009. In this position, she serves as a senior adviser to Secretary Arne Duncan on K-12 and postsecondary education policy and oversees the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (OPEPD), which coordinates policy and budget activities with the Department's principal offices as well as with the Office of Management and Budget, the House and Senate education committees, and state education agencies. OPEPD is home to the Department's Budget Service, the Performance Information Management Service, the Policy and Program Studies Service, the Office of Educational Technology and the Family Policy Compliance Office, which works to protect student privacy.

Prior to coming to the Department, Martin served as general counsel and chief education adviser to Sen. Edward Kennedy for his work on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. She previously worked at the Center for American Progress as the associate director for domestic policy, and in the Senate as chief counsel and senior policy adviser to Sen. Jeff Bingaman and special counsel to Sen. Tom Daschle. Through her years in Congress, she worked on legislation related to education, welfare, and other issues important to children and families.

Early in Martin's career, she worked as a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the Educational Opportunities Section at the Department of Justice as well as in the private sector as a member of Hogan & Hartson's education practice. There she counseled and represented school districts and institutions of higher education across the country. She graduated with a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and a Master's in Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. After graduate school, Martin was a law clerk to the Hon. Thomas Reavley, judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Martin is married and has two children. She and her family reside in Maryland.