Марк Дэниел Гиран: Өмір жолы мен қызметінің шолуы

Mark Daniel Gearan (born September 19, 1956) is a public servant, lawyer, higher education expert, 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 served as the director of the Peace Corps. He is the longest serving president in the history of HWS, serving from 1999 2017. Gearan returned to the position in 2022. In recognition to Gearan’s exemplary presidency and service, the HWS Board of Trustees awarded him an honorary degree in 2017 and named him President Emeritus of the Colleges, the first time in HWS history that the board bestowed the honor. In 2018, Gearan joined Harvard University as 'President in Residence' working on important issues facing higher education and the next generation of leaders at the Graduate School of Education. Gearan has held several leadership roles in numerous organizations which includes: Chair of National Campus Compact, Chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Chair of the Annapolis Group of selective liberal arts colleges, and Chair of the Talloires Network Steering Committee, an international organization of college and university presidents from six continents committed to civic engagement.

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 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, political correspondent at The Washington Post.

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 of the race, 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. As Dukakis' Press spokesman, Gearan was frustrated by Republican negative campaigning and supported Dukakis' decision to respond. 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.

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

During the Clinton Administration Gearan served several roles. Gearan helped shepherd Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer through his confirmation hearings in 1994 and said that managing a successful confirmation requires thorough research, an aggressive media strategy, intense lobbying on Capitol Hill and it also helps to expect the unexpected.

On June 22, 1995, President Clinton announced his nomination of Gearan to head the Peace Corps. "I am proud to nominate him to lead our Peace Corps into the 21st century, to keep the vision and the spirit of John Kennedy alive and the dream of America alive all over the world," said Clinton. However Gearan was strongly supported by other returned volunteers including Donna Shalala, Clinton's 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.

Gearan was confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in as the 14th Director of the Peace Corps in September 1995 On March 1, 1996, the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps, Gearan spoke about its relevance today: "You answered President Kennedy's call, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' You provided needed assistance to 130 countries around the globe, and you continue that service here at home." 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.

One of Gearan's most successful initiatives was the creation of the Crisis Corps, that would send former Peace Corps volunteers into crisis areas for six months or less to help during emergencies.

On January 3, 1998, President Clinton proposed to expand the Peace Corps from about 6,500 volunteers to 10,000 volunteers by the year 2000. 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 only modest gains increasing to about 7,100.

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, 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. As president of HWS, 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". In 2015, the Colleges significantly expanded its Office for Title IX Programs and Compliance. The office now includes a Title IX coordinator, Deputy Title IX Coordinator, and a Prevention and Education Coordinator, increasing its outreach to students and facilitating the timely resolution of cases.

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.