Mark has dedicated his career to serving California and American agriculture and has worked with numerous businesses, non-profit organizations and educational institutions in business and leadership development and in creating strategic partnerships as well as rural/urban connections. He is the U.S. Agriculture Liaison for the Culinary Institute of America, was instrumental in co-founding and generating financial support for the PBS television program, America’s Heartland, now in its 16th season, was the co-founder and first President/CEO of Agriculture in the Classroom where he served for 23 years bringing agricultural education to urban classrooms, and served as President/CEO of Food, Land, & People, an educational organization representing diverse sectors of society focused on the interdependence of food production, environmental quality and the sustainability of human cultures. He is the cofounder of Culinary Sciences, Inc., centering on food production and the culinary arts. Mark is also involved in two agricultural technology companies.
As a volunteer, Mark currently serves as a board member of Rural Development Partners, the California Institute of Food & Agricultural Research, the American Farmland Trust Stewardship Council, UC Davis Olive Center, and the St Helena Housing Coalition. For many years he also served on California’s State Fair Agricultural Advisory Board and the Center for Land-Based Learning. Mark is a fellow of the California Agricultural Leadership Program and the John J McCloy Program to Germany.
Raised a Methodist on his family farm in Iowa, Mark & Mary became Presbyterians when they arrived in San Francisco and then Sacramento. Upon arrival to St Helena, they found Grace and became Episcopalians. Mark serves Grace as an usher, a member of the Sustaining Grace committee, served on stewardship, a member of the Monday morning Men’s Group, and is looking forward to his term on the Vestry. Mark and Mary have two daughters, Katherine whose family resides in Sonoma, and Elizabeth in London. Their grandchildren, Madeleine (5) and Theodore (2) were baptized at Grace.
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