Mark Gorman is a Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, focusing on Water and Watershed issues. For four years prior to joining the Institute in 2009, he directed the Northwest Office of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), based in Meadville, working with numerous partners from the private sector, government, communities and individuals in the upper Ohio River and Great Lakes basins to promote the sustainable use of built and natural landscapes, particularly by focusing on links between the environment, the economy and quality of life.
Before working for PEC, Mark served for over 22 years with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP). There, he helped to launch PADEP’s new Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program statewide and directed that Program in PADEP’s Northwest Region. He was co-leader of the a pilot PADEP regional watershed team effort (focused on the internationally-renowned French Creek watershed), and later co-chaired PADEP’s Lake Erie, French Creek and Oil Creek watershed team.
Mark is a trained mediator and facilitator, and served in that capacity for seven years on the PADEP’s statewide Alternative Dispute Resolution team. He worked in the water quality program of the Allegheny County Health Department in Pittsburgh for two years before joining PADEP. Mark also served a three-year term as a member of the Northeast SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program) Advisory Council (2006 to 2008), and two-year term on Pennsylvania’s Water Resources Planning Committee for the Lake Erie basin (2007-2008).
Mark is an active supporter of many local, statewide and national civic and conservation organizations. He holds a B.S. in Biology from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, an M.S. in Biological Oceanography from the University of South Florida, and an M.S. in Freshwater System's Ecology from Kent State University in Ohio. Except for those brief periods out of state for graduate education, Mark was a life-long Pennsylvania resident before moving to Alexandria, Virginia in 2008.