Mark L. Schneider is a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the Americas program and Human Rights Initiative. He has had a public service career spanning government, international organizations, civil society and academia. In government, Schneider served as Director of the Peace Corps from 1999-2001 and as the Assistant Administrator for Latin American and the Caribbean of the U.S. Agency for International Development 1993-1999 during which time he oversaw the post conflict reconstruction programs in Central America, led the U.S. delegation to international donor conferences and coordinated the response to Hurricane Mitch. He was the USAID lead on responding to the civil conflict in Colombia in the late 1990’s, working on the initial Plan Colombia design. Earlier, for UN organizations, he attended the Esquipulas peace conferences and helped organize ceasefires in El Salvador to permit polio immunization campaigns to take place, while heading policy planning at the Pan American Health Organization. Previously, he served as the Principal Deputy Asst. Sec. in State Department’s Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1977-1979, focusing on responding to the human rights violations of dictatorial regimes and pursuing diplomatically international support for human rights treaties. He also served as a foreign policy advisor and speechwriter for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He engaged with civil society while in government, and later joined the International Crisis Group, serving as Senior Vice President from 2001 until March 2017, working on conflict prevention and responsibility to protect issues globally. Schneider was a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador, has lectured in various universities, published numerous articles, testified frequently before Congress and served on the American University Board of Trustees for 10 years, and is an adjunct professor there. He has a BA from UC Berkeley, an MA from San Jose University and an honorary LLD from American University. He also received the Bernardo O’Higgins award in 1993 and the Orden al Merito, Gran Cruz, award in 2000 from the Government of Chile for his human rights work.