Mark Tasker Email & Phone Number

United States

Pittsfield, Maine, United States

My remit as Director of Partnership Programs is to continue the development MCI's global network of dual-enrollment partner schools. This past year I administered twelve faculty teaching online lessons in three disciplines to 270 students in 15 partnership schools 12 time zones away. I also serve as an Admissions Associate and in this capacity I am leveraging my experiences in Nordic countries to develop student exchange programming. To that end I will be traveling to Sweden and Finland during the 2024-2025 academic year to recruit potential students and meet with future exchange partners. I was born in Pittsfield, grew up along the old Maine Central Railroad line just to the north, and it feels wonderful to be back in central Maine at this point in my life. "Go Huskies!!"

Limestone, Maine

In my final year at MSSM I taught university-level courses in Anthropology, Sociology, and Economics, as well as a Cycling/Nordic Skiing course as part of MSSM's P.E. program. In addition, I had a grand time leading intrepid MSSM Penguins across the snowfields in MSSM's "Learning to Love Winter in Limestone" J-Term class, a 10-day experiential session that happens each January. In my final year there I wrote a grant for the purchase of an online weather station that we installed the last day of J-Term and dubbed "Penguin Station" in honor the school's mascot. I also have the distinction of being the school's last Social Science/World Languages Depratment Chair. It was in this capacity that I organized the 2023 "Sub-Arctic Themed Weekend" in collaboration with our Science Department Chair. As part of this experiential programming we brought a speaker from the Caribou National Weather Service office to Limestone to speak to our students, and continued the time-honored tradition of building "Quinzee" snow-houses behind the school.

Bangor, Maine

I'm a founding member of Bangor's "Aurora Jazz Project", a four-piece group that prides itself in taking jazz in different directions, sometimes rather forcefully. A favorite description of AJP is "Miles meets Monk at a Phish concert", and that certainly fits: our keyboard guru coined the term "jam/jazz" in an attempt to capture all we do and how we do it. (You can dig us on ReverbNation and FB.) I'm a product of the Nokomis music program and in the early 80's I did a year at Berklee, where I studied with Jeff Stout. I also played for UMaine's "20th Century Music Ensemble" under the one-and-only Don Stratton, and from 2003-2008 I was jazz chair in Bangor's "Queen City big Band." Playing in a jam/jazz band that does 18-minute tunes I draw my primary influence from Miles (especially the later material), but on a club date it's earlier Miles, along with Chet Baker and Clark Terry.

Bangor, Me

At John Bapst I was directly in charge of a 5 FTE Social Science department. As such I was responsible for budgeting, classroom evaluation, curriculum direction, and being the department's voice to administration. I created and ran the school's educational exchange program with Dragonskolan in Umea, Sweden, and helped out with the school's jazz ensembles. During my years at Bapst I taught American History, Economics, AP American History, Sociology, AP Government, AP Comparative Government, Anthropology I and II, and Civics.

Limestone, Me

Master Of Arts (M.A.), Scandinavian Area Studies

Activities and Societies: "The Nordic Roundtable"; speedskating at Roseville Oval I can't imagine trading the education I got a the "U".

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Secondary Social Studies, Graduated High Distinction

Activities and Societies: 20th Century Jazz Music Ensemble; "Los Picantes" music ensemble; cycling team; "Maine Bound" Adventure Club. I.