During the course of the academic year 2021/22 IBEI hosts a series of lectures by practitioners in the field of international relations and development.

The practitioner seminar series is intended to give IBEI students and attendees an opportunity to engage with international professionals about their personal work experience, the organizations they represent, and to learn about possible career trajectories in international governmental and non-governmental organizations. Each lecture will allow ample room for questions and inputs from the audience.

Use the hashtag #IBEIpracSeminars to share and comment on the social networks.

Mark D. Oviatt has extensive broad international development background; focused on validated, prioritized and consensus sanctioned needs assessments, practical program design and solicitation/proposal development. Targeted/monitored implementation management, and monitoring and evaluation, spanning a range of sectors, including large scale democracy and governance, infrastructure, and wide-ranging economic growth, plus agriculture, health, disaster response, among others. Mark’s first direct work with USAID began in Iraq in 2003 when he was placed in charge of restoring, refurbishing, and rebuilding all of Iraq’s water and sanitation systems. After this post, Mark moved to Afghanistan with USAID where he led training and marketing programs with farmers in the agricultural sector. Mark also lived in Sri Lanka where he worked on USAID’s programs for returned Internally Displaced Persons, former combatants, war widows, and victims of conflict. Afterwards, he took another position as the Principal Officer for USAID in Guyana and Suriname. Mark is currently semi-retired, taking USAID STTA (Short-Term Technical Assistance) assignments, and as a member of the USAID Alumni Association; he also performs  "mentoring" assignments for USAID staff. Mark has an educational background in Political Science and International Relations. He holds a master degree in International Relations from the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI).