Mark Yarnell
Practitioner in Residence
Mark is an international relations expert with over fifteen years of experience bridging frontline realities and global decision-making. He is currently in Brussels conducting research and analysis on the EU’s approach to migration.
Recently, he worked for five years at the United Nations in Geneva, including on internal displacement policy and strategy with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), as well on research and partnerships for the UN Secretary-General鈥檚 High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement. He was also a consultant for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Earlier in his career, Mark spent nearly a decade as an advocate with Refugees International, leading field missions to conflict and displacement settings across Africa and Asia鈥攊ncluding in Bangladesh, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has appeared as a subject-matter expert on multiple media outlets. He began his career in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with Merlin and Oxfam, and also served as a Stimson Center Congressional Fellow in the U.S. Senate.
Mark holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, where he was a teaching assistant to former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics from Queen鈥檚 University in Canada.