Mark approaches teaching and empowering students with a sense of joy. He believes in student-centered education based on cultural humility and many voices, those of women, people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, and other underrepresented groups included.
Although he studied history and dreamed of becoming a history professor, in 1994, with thousands of Russians flocking to New York, Brooklyn College hired him to teach ESL and direct its ESL Learning Center. In 2005 he transferred to NYU. Currently, he teaches genre analysis, research skills, composition, and creative nonfiction to native and non-native English speakers at NYU and Pace University. He has also taught on two CUNY campuses and in Catholic higher education.
A passionate writer, Mark co-authored a book on teaching non-traditional learners and has published on travel, museums, his beloved super-hero comic books, and OCD. Working as a trained OCD volunteer for almost two decades, his ideas have been part of mental health professionals’ scholarship. In 2017 he was invited to speak at a conference on OCD in Washington, D.C., the only non-therapist in the room. He has since been a guest on a few podcasts, talking about his work in the OCD community, how listeners can get help, what OCD is and is not, and his own OCD. This, too, is a source of joy.
Mark also does professional voiceovers, explores his inner geek by reading and watching science fiction, and adores all animals, especially cats.