He/Him/His

Merit America

Mark's mission is to close gaps in access and achievement by building teams that are uncompromisingly engaged, inclusive, and high performing. Currently at Merit America (a nonprofit creating pathways to family-sustaining careers), Mark leads the People function as the VP of People.

As the first People exec at several Series A-C startups, Mark has scaled tech orgs like Section School (business skills), Kingdom Supercultures (AI research lab in sustainable food), Newsela (differentiated K-12 reading), and Coursera (adult learning). He also serves on the board of Breakthrough Collaborative (college readiness programs) in San Francisco.

With his Education degree from Penn, Mark's journey working towards educational equity started with teaching high school English and hip hop dance in Hong Kong and Malaysia as a Fulbright Scholar.

Mark feels at home when he's in San Francisco with his partner, finding voluminous food over quality food, coaching wrestling at a local high school, not following prescribed choreography in dance classes, attempting to limit his competitiveness to just Settlers of Catan, and writing in the third person.