Mark Schlakman, J.D.

Senior Program Director

Mark R. Schlakman serves as senior program director for the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University and as coordinator of its Human Rights & National Security in the 21st Century lecture series. He is the principal investigator for the Center's Liberty in the Balance, Rethinking Civil Rights Restoration in Florida and, American Bar Association (ABA)/Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team Report projects.

Prior to joining FSU's faculty in 2002, Mr. Schlakman held several government positions at the state and federal levels including, special counsel to Governor Lawton Chiles; advisor to Governor Jeb Bush during his first several months in office; senior advisor to Governor "Buddy" MacKay when the governor served as White House Special Envoy for the Americas during the final two years of the Clinton administration; and as a special advisor to U.S. Senator Bob Graham before returning to Florida.

During his tour in Washington, D.C., Mr. Schlakman also served as a Foreign Affairs Officer for the U.S. Department of State where he received its Superior Honor Award in recognition for his service within the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs while assigned to the White House. He subsequently served as Alternate Representative for the US Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States (OAS) and as a special assistant to four-star Marine General Peter Pace, Commander, United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

Mr. Schlakman is a lawyer and is eligible to practice law in Florida. He currently serves as Board Chair for The Innocence Project of Florida, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for exoneration of wrongfully convicted inmates based on DNA evidence; and as Board Chair for the Florida Association for Volunteer Action in the Caribbean and the Americas (FAVACA), a not-for profit organization that was launched under then Governor Bob Graham during the early '80s that promotes social and economic development in the region through volunteer service.

Mr. Schlakman also serves on the Florida Fusion Center's Constitutional Protections and Privacy Advisory Board, which is administered through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he served as president of the Student Bar Association (SBA) and received recognition from the ABA for leading the most effective SBA in the nation. He received the Dean's Certificate at graduation and subsequently completed the Harvard Kennedy School's Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government in Cambridge, MA.