Mark Haggarty
Development Director
Originally from New York, Mark Haggarty graduated with a B.A. in English from Kenyon College in 1996, and then was privileged to participate in the fast-paced Internet Boom (1.0) with startups in both New York City and San Francisco, before transitioning in 2002 to the non-profit space as a career. He worked in direct service and program delivery for the College Track organization in East Palo Alto, CA, and volunteered time in summer workshops for College Summit (now PeerForward), until 2006 when he became a father for the first time and relocated with his wife Amy to her native Chicago. They now have two children, aged 14 and 10.
After completing an MBA at Loyola University Chicago, Mark opened his first nonprofit consultancy in 2008, with clients across Chicago and the Midwest specifically focused on education reform efforts and college success for first-generation, low-income student populations. His biggest client became the OneGoal organization; Mark was the lead author of the OneGoal three-year curriculum (version 1.0) that governs student progress through the program. From 2013 through early 2018, Mark put his consultancy on hold in favor of full-time employment as OneGoal’s National Director of New Site Development, leading the internal and external efforts to open new regions annually for OneGoal around the country. Mark returned to the world of consulting and advising under the auspices of Spacebar Projects in 2018, when he first came into contact with the Pat Tillman Foundation and he where he is now employed as the Director of Development. Mark spends every day in admiration of the example that Pat Tillman set, not only one of selfless service, but benevolent curiosity.