Mark P. Lagon

Mark P. Lagon is a thought leader on global governance and institutions, global health, human rights, and human trafficking. He is Chief Policy Officer at Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria—where he coordinates the non-profit’s Administration and congressional outreach, policy advocacy and coalition management, and research content. He is also Distinguished Senior Scholar at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

In the NGO world, he served as President of Freedom House. Previously, he was Executive Director and CEO of the leading anti-human trafficking nonprofit, Polaris.

In academia and the think tank world, he was Global Politics and Security Chair for Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Service Program. He was also the same time Adjunct Senior Fellow for Human Rights at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In the Executive Branch, he served in three successive roles at the Department of State: member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff; Deputy Assistant Secretary of International Organization Affairs; and finally Ambassador-at-Large directing the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Earlier on Capitol Hill, he was senior staffer at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee responsible for international organizations and human rights; and served as deputy director at the House Republican Policy Committee.

He is co-editor with Anthony Clark Arend of the 2014 book, Human Dignity and the Future of Global Institutions and author of the book, The Reagan Doctrine: Sources of American Conduct in the Cold War's Last Chapter.

He received his Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown University, and A.B. from Harvard University.

He won the Louis B. Sohn Human Rights Award from UNA-NCA in 2015 for exemplary service and commitment to advancing human rights.