First Presbyterian Church
Staff & Leaders

Robert Martin

Rob Martin has served as Senior Pastor / Head of Staff at First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto for the past 10 years. Prior to coming to First Pres, Rob served as both the Chaplain for Warren Wilson College and as Senior Pastor of the Warren Wilson Presbyterian Church located in Asheville, North Carolina. He has also served as a pastor in inner-city New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was the founder of the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network and in Denver, Colorado, where he staffed Capitol Hill United Ministries—a coalition of 13 cross-denominational churches united in mission. Rob did his undergraduate studies at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina, where he completed a double major in Creative Writing and Marxian Political Analysis. He also holds a Master of Divinity degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary where he served as an Urban Ministry Scholar and was the recipient of the Martin Kneeling Excellence in Preaching Award given by the SFTS Faculty.