Mark Jahnke

Mark grew up between Ketchikan, Alaska, Geneva, Switzerland, and Seattle, Washington. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Global Health and Health Policy and a master’s degree in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London. At Harvard, he conducted research in Tehran and Esfahan, Iran, and was awarded high honors for his dissertation on Iran’s program to address HIV and AIDS in injecting drug use communities. After Harvard, Mark worked for two years in global health communications and at the U.S. Senate before spending two years working with the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan as a Peace Corps Volunteer, with a focus on health education, organizational development, and HIV/AIDS and drug use harm reduction programs. Following the Peace Corps, he spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom, and most recently spent the summer researching political developments and governance in the former Soviet Union. A former competitive ice dancer, Mark now enjoys coaching figure skating, running marathons, traveling and Argentine tango.