Mark P. Lagon is Professor in the Practice of International Affairs, and International Relations and Security Chair at the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program at Georgetown University. He is also Adjunct Senior Fellow for Human Rights at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Lagon was previously Executive Director and CEO of the leading anti-human trafficking nonprofit, Polaris Project, which operates the U.S. Government's national anti-trafficking hotline (1-888-3737-888).
Previously, with rank of Ambassador, Lagon directed the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) at the U.S. Department of State, until January 2009. As such, he chaired by statute the Senior Policy Operating Group coordinating all U.S. agencies efforts to combat human trafficking domestically and internationally.
From 2004 to 2007, Lagon served in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs at the U.S. Department of State as Deputy Assistant Secretary. In this capacity, he had lead responsibility for United Nations-related human rights and humanitarian issues, UN reform, and outreach.
Lagon previously served as a member of the Secretary of State Colin Powell's Policy Planning Staff, where he focused on UN, democracy and human rights (2002-2004).
From 1999 to 2002, he was on the senior staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with responsibility including the United Nations and human rights.
Previously he won a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship, where he specialized on U.S. policymaking toward in China (1998-1999); served at House Republican Policy Committee (1997-1998); worked for Georgetown Leavey Professor Jeane J. Kirkpatrick as her principal aide at the American Enterprise Institute. He has taught previously in the Government Department (as Visiting Assistant Professor and Adjunct) and the Security Studies Programs of Georgetown University, and at the Institute of World Politics. He is author of the book, The Reagan Doctrine: Sources of American Conduct in the Cold War's Last Chapter, and numerous articles on UN, human rights, European, and East Asian affairs.
Dr. Lagon is currently on the Board of Directors of the Council for a Community of Democracies, as well as the Advisory Board of ECPAT-USA (End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes). He also is Founding Counselor and Board Member of the Global Business Coalition Against Human Trafficking ("gBCAT"), publicly launched in Fall 2012, which includes as members Manpower, NXP Semiconductor, Coca Cola, Microsoft, LexisNexis, Delta Airlines, ExxonMobil, and Carlson.