Ambassador Mark Green (ret.) is an innovative thinker on foreign policy in general and global development in particular. He is President Emeritus of The Wilson Center, an active Board Member of the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, and the author of both the Stubborn Things and Moments Along the Way blogs.

Green served as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2017 to 2020. Before that he served as President of the International Republican Institute, one of the world’s leading democracy promotion organizations. Green served as the U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania from mid-2007 to early 2009, as well as four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Wisconsin’s 8th District. He has also served as President of the Initiative for Global Development and Senior Director at the US Global Leadership Coalition.

While in Congress, among other things, he played a leading role in crafting legislation establishing both the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). At USAID, he pioneered an approach to development assistance he called the “Journey to Self-Reliance” and launched a new emphasis on private sector engagement and collaboration.

Green has also served on the MCC’s Board of Directors during both the Obama and Trump Administrations, on the Bush Institute’s Human Freedom Advisory Council, and on the Board of Consensus for Development Reform. He holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. He has received special honors from President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and President Ivan Duque of Colombia, as well as an honorary Doctor of Science from Georgetown University.

Mark's discussion group this fall is titled "A Crossroads Moment for American 'Soft Power.'"