About Coach Mark
Since starting to teach skating in 2013, Mark’s mission has been to guide students of all abilities to find joy in the process of developing and honing their skills and capabilities as skaters and humans, emphasizing discipline, perspective, and passion that students can carry with throughout their lives.
Mark is a US Figure Skating (USFS) Compliant coach, a member of the Professional Skaters Association (PSA), and a former athlete representative and committee member at US Figure Skating. He is a USFS Quadruple Gold Medallist in Skating Skills, Singles, Pattern Dance (Partnered), and Free Dance (Partnered), and also trained in Pairs.
Born and raised in the Northwest, Mark continues to occasionally give performances for charitable causes.
Competitive Success
Mark's competitive career has included highlights across disciplines and competitive levels, including singles, partnered ice dance, solo ice dance, intercollegiate, and theatre on ice.
Former US Figure Skating International Selection Pool Member
2-time US Championships top-10 finisher
3-time US Junior Championships competitor
2011 Pacific Coast Sectional Champion
2009 Pacific Coast Sectional Silver Medallist
2012 Pacific Coast Sectional Bronze Medallist
Three-time US National Intercollegiate Champion
2010 US National Pewter Medallist, Theatre on Ice
2009 US National Silver Medallist, Solo Ice Dance
Mark trained with World and Olympic coaches at elite training centres in Boston, MA and Ann Arbor, MI, and has extensive experience in the American, Russian, and British schools of ice dance. He also served for two years on the Executive Board of An Evening With Champions.
Education is critical to every young person in our community, and Mark strongly encourages his students to pursue their interests and seek excellence in their educational pursuits.
A graduate of Lakeside School in Seattle, Mark holds a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and a Master in Public Affairs in International Relations from Princeton University. In 2017, he was named a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom, where he also earned an MSc in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London. He also holds an MBA.
In addition to classical ballet training as a child, Mark also trained in Argentine tango de salon at DNI Escuela de Tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has experience teaching Argentine tango.
Educational Excellence
Lifelong Passion
Whether your goal is the Olympic Games or just a hike in the Olympic mountains, figure skating presents more engaging challenges of greater nature and variety than anything I've ever done in my life, and has been critical to my success both in and outside the sport. Each day that I coach I learn something new, both about the sport itself, but about my own capabilities that I never knew the sport had given me.
I’ve worked in rural healthcare clinics in Kyrgyzstan, but also for the World Health Organization and World Bank on the globe-spanning COVAX initiative. I've worked at the US Senate, with several major Fortune 500 companies, and for some of the largest charitable foundations in the world. From the most grassroots of public sector work to the highest echelons of governments and private sector firms, skating prepared me for it all, and then some.