Mark Lynd was just elected as Vice-Chair of the Basic Education Coalition (BEC) Executive Board for 2017-2018. The Coalition is comprised of 26 member organizations working to ensure that all children around the world have access to a quality basic education.

Mark co-founded an NGO called School-to-School International (STS) in 2002 and currently serves as its president. STS works on the basis of a “Whole Child Model”, a holistic approach that integrates education, health and community engagement to establish the basic conditions for student success.

He explains, “Our approach is to help kids get the basic things they need to learn—not just a couple of books or a teacher who attended a couple of workshops, but decent health conditions, preschool support, and an organized and supportive learning environment at school.”

STS has reached over 8,000 students, 130 teachers and thousands of parents and community members in 34 schools in Guinea, West Africa and has ongoing projects in over 20 countries around the world. [2/17]

Mark has a chapter entitled  "High Hopes for Input-Driven Development" in a "The Practice of International Development" a book published in October 2017.

Prior to devoting his time fully to STS, Mark also consulted with various development organizations in the Washington DC area such as Creative Associates (where he worked with CIE graduate Margaret McLaughlin before she moved to Peace Corps) in areas such as teacher training, curriculum development, program evaluation and assessment of student learning.

As part of his consulting work, he was able to meet up with CIE members such as Renuka Pillay in Uganda, Becky Bunnell—living and consulting in Kenya, and Jane Benbow in Cairo, as well as David McCurry, Bonnie Mullinix and Tom Neilson at CIES and AERA meetings. [12/08]

Email: markrobertlynd@yahoo.com