Mark Whitehouse's Bio
Mark has 20 years of experience in governance, civil society, and media development.
Mark leads IREX's civil society and media development programs, focusing on the intersection of civil society and media in promoting good governance. Under Mark’s leadership, IREX's media development projects expanded to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and have increasingly integrated new and social media strategies into media sector development. He has led an increasing emphasis on monitoring and evaluation within IREX development projects. Since joining IREX in 1997, Whitehouse has managed USAID, US State Department, and privately funded media projects, with a focus on effective and appropriate cooperation between media professionals, citizen journalists, governments, and CSOs.
Prior to joining IREX, Mark worked for the Director of the Carter Center’s Commission on Radio and Television Policy, was Administrator of USSR Programs at ACTR/ACCELS, and provided project support to local governance projects at USAID. Currently, he serves on the boards of IREX Europe [24] and BTC ProMedia (Bulgaria) [25]. He previously served on the Executive Committee of the Global Forum for Media Development.
Mark received an MA in Political Science from Emory University, an MA in Russian and East European Studies and a BA in Government from Georgetown University. He was a research fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Ethnology where he conducted research on ethnic politics in Mari-El, Tatartstan, and Yakutia (Sakha). His areas of expertise include monitoring and evaluation, association development, and media law and policy.
Mark is a past winner (and one-time runner-up) of the Iron Chef IREX contest.