• PhD Candidate and Instructor, English department
• Prairie Visions Writing Festival Coordinator and Presenter
• Robert L. Hough Graduate Teaching Award 2019
• Husker Writers Community Excellence Award 2019
• NeWP Civic Engagement Institute 2018
• Nebraska Warrior Writers Grand Island Co-facilitator 2016-2017
• NeWP Summer Institute 2016

When asked how the Nebraska Writing Project has affected his view of writing and teaching writing, Mark says, "The NeWP continually teaches me that my classroom should be a place where writing is not just talked about but done. That includes me. Before taking my first summer institute, I almost never shared my own writing with my students. Now, my teaching is much more about modeling my own practice for my students to learn from and adapt. The other teachers in that first summer institute helped me have the courage and desire to share my work, and the writing project's core principle that "The best teachers of writing are writers themselves" taught me why writing alongside my students is so important. We spend so much more time actually writing and talking about each other's writing in class now. The NeWP has also broadened my view of what student writing can be and what it is for. I've learned to treat my students' work with the same respect, care, and excitement that I do published authors. This enthusiasm spreads to the students when we look at their work together in class. Professionally, The NeWP has changed my life. I have met mentors and developed a network of other teachers that have helped me finally move from working as an adjunct to pursuing my PhD. My public school colleagues in the NeWP also continually help me understand what my college students are bringing to my classroom and help me better scaffold my assignments and classroom activities. Without The NeWP, I would not be doing the student-centered teaching that I love so much today."