Mark R. Schlakman, Esq., serves as senior program director for The Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. During his tenure at FSU he has served as coordinator for CAHR’s Human Rights & National Security in the 21st Century lecture series, and as principal investigator for both the Center's Liberty in the Balance (post- 9/11), and American Bar Association (ABA) Death Penalty Assessment projects. Prior to aligning with CAHR in 2002, Schlakman held several senior positions in state and federal government, including assistant general counsel to Florida Governor Lawton M. Chiles, Jr. with initial emphasis on executive clemency then subsequently as the governor's special counsel on Florida immigration issues. He later served as senior advisor to former Florida Governor Kenneth H. Buddy MacKay, Jr. amid the governor's service as White House Special Envoy to the Americas during the latter stages of the Clinton administration. Schlakman transitioned the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs and served as a foreign affairs officer at the outset of the George W. Bush administration. At that point he was assigned as an Alternative Representative to the US Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States (OAS), and then as assigned as an interim foreign policy advisor to four-star Marine Corps General Peter Pace when the general served as Commander, United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM HQ Doral/ Miami).