Mark Daniel Gearan (born September 19, 1956) is an American lawyer and the president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. He previously served as a director at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics from 1995 to 1999 and as the director of the Peace Corps. He is the longest-serving president in the history of HWS, serving from 1999 to 2017 and again since 2022.

The HWS Board of Trustees awarded him an honorary degree in 2017 and named him President Emeritus of the Colleges. In 2018, Gearan joined Harvard University as 'President in Residence'.

Gearan has served as Chair of the National Campus Compact, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Annapolis Group of selective liberal arts colleges, and the Talloires Network Steering Committee, an organization of college and university presidents.

Early life and education

Gearan was born in Gardner, Massachusetts, and graduated from Gardner High School in 1974. Gearan earned his A.B. in government cum laude at Harvard University in 1978 and his J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1991. At Harvard, he was the college roommate of future lawyer and conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. His cousin is Anne Gearan, a political correspondent at The Washington Post.

Career in politics and government

Gearan's early interest in politics began when he helped distribute leaflets in Jesuit priest Robert F. Drinan's campaign for Congress on a strong anti-Vietnam War platform in 1970. While an undergraduate at Harvard, Gearan interned in Drinan's Washington office and worked on Drinan's re-election campaign in 1978. for three years. When Gary Hart dropped out, the Dukakis campaign replaced Gearan with Hart's Iowa coordinator and sent Gearan back to Boston to be the campaign's national headquarters Press Secretary. Gearan added that Bush had falsely accused Dukakis of opposing the Stealth bomber and the D-5, a nuclear missile used on the Trident submarine.

After the election, Gearan said that one of the mistakes Dukakis made after winning the Democratic nomination was not re-introducing himself to the American people. After Dukakis' defeat, Mr. Gearan returned to run the Massachusetts Office of Federal Relations until 1989.

1992 Presidential campaign

In 1991, Gearan was offered the job of Clinton's campaign communications chief while Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

Clinton Administration

During the Clinton Administration, Gearan served in several roles. Gearan helped shepherd Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer through his confirmation hearings in 1994.

Peace Corps

On June 22, 1995, President Clinton announced his nomination of Gearan to head the Peace Corps.

Controversy over nomination

There was some controversy over Gearan's appointment as Peace Corps Director since he had not served in the Peace Corps himself and was succeeding Carol Bellamy, who was the first Peace Corps Director to have served as a volunteer. However, Gearan was supported by other returned volunteers, including Donna Shalala, Clinton of Secretary of Health and Human Services, who had served in the Peace Corps in Iran and who addressed the NPCA at their annual meeting on August 4, 1995, in Austin, Texas.

Director

Gearan was confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in as the 14th Director of the Peace Corps in September 1995. He was director of the Peace Corps from 1995 to 1999.

On June 29, 1998, the United States and China formalized the Peace Corps program in China, signing an agreement that established a formal framework for a Peace Corps program in China.

Crisis Corps

Gearan's initiatives the Crisis Corps would later send former Peace Corps volunteers into crisis areas for six months or less to help during emergencies. However, Gearan later stated that he regretted that he had not moved faster in creating the corps. However, the initiative failed to gain political traction or substantially increased funding in Congress and by the end of Clinton's term in office, the number of volunteers had made it to about 7,100.

College President

On June 1, 1999, President Clinton announced that Gearan would be leaving the administration to accept the position of President of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. "One of the best personnel decisions I have made as President was to appoint Mark Gearan as the Director of the Peace Corps," Clinton said. "College administration generally and, in particular, small, residential, liberal arts colleges have always been things I thought I would like to be a part of, because of their importance, because they are mission-oriented, because they are value-centered," Gearan said. Making use of personal contacts made during his thirty years in politics, speakers in the series have included Hillary Clinton, Robert Drinan, Sam Donaldson, Ralph Nader, Donna Shalala, Michael Dukakis, George Stephanopoulos, Barney Frank, George McGovern, Gloria Steinem, and Helen Thomas.

At the close of his first year at Hobart and William Smith, Gearan began the development of a five-year planning initiative called HWS 2005. He subsequently led the next two phases, HWS 2010 and HWS 2015, as well as Campaign for the Colleges, which raised more than $205 million to support facilities, endowment, and annual giving.

New York Times sexual assault story

A July 13, 2014, New York Times article detailed a case in which a Hobart and William Smith freshman reported a sexual assault by three students two weeks into her first year. Within two weeks, the college's investigation cleared the two men accused, despite medical evidence and a corroborating witness to one of the incidents and discrepancies in the alleged perpetrators' accounts of the evening. The story also alleged the members of the disciplinary panel that heard the case were uninformed about sexual assault and frequently changed the subject rather than hear the victim's account of events.

Gearan issued a response on July 13, 2014, stating that "even though we believe we handled the circumstances fairly and within the constraints of the law, and that we made decisions based on the evidence, there is no sense of satisfaction other than the knowledge that we treated everyone with compassion, kindness and respect." He went on to state that "HWS officials met with the Times reporter for two lengthy interviews and answered numerous questions via e-mail and phone, all in an effort to fully explain our approach and philosophy regarding sexual assault cases" and stated that "information that was provided to the Times reporter [was] largely missing from the article" and that transcripts of the hearings "were quoted out of context".

On July 16, 2014, he issued a second response, stating that "A group of faculty, staff, students and alums are working on a thorough review of our processes for sexual misconduct cases".

Other activities and honors

Gearan is the recipient of 12 honorary degrees. Gearan serves on the boards of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Points of Light Foundation, the Annapolis Group, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and The Partnership of Public Service. On November 23, 2004, Gearan was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. On November 30, 2007, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported that Gearan was confirmed on November 16 to another three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

An article by the Associated Press on September 17, 2004, said that in the event of a Kerry win in the 2004 campaign for the presidency, Gearan would be a possible nominee for the post of Secretary of the Interior.

References

  • Biography from Hobart & William Smith Colleges Site
  • Biography from Peace Corps website

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