Mark Ishaug

Mark Ishaug assumed the role of President and CEO of AIDS United on February 1, 2011. AIDS United is a national organization that combines national, regional and local policy/advocacy, with strategic grantmaking and organizational capacity building to ensure that people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS have access to the prevention and care services they need and deserve.

Ishaug comes to AIDS United after serving 13 years as President and CEO of AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC), where he established is as the Midwest’s largest HIV/AIDS service organization and Illinois’ leading advocate for people with AIDS and the agencies that serve them.

Ishaug joined AFC in 1991 as a policy analyst and worked as policy director and associate director before being appointed President/CEO in August 1998. Under his leadership, the scope and reach of AFC greatly expanded, and its grantmaking, policy, prevention, and service coordination programs serve more people living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS than at any other time in AFC’s history. As AFC president and CEO, Ishaug developed innovative initiatives to confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including the Center for Housing and Health and TEAM TO END AIDS, an endurance training and HIV fundraising program that he also is establishing in Washington, D.C. to raise funds for HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs the District of Columbia and around the country.

Prior to joining AFC, Ishaug studied and taught international economics at the University of Zimbabwe in 1987 as a Rotary Foundation Scholar, and in 1989, was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Scholarship from Northwestern University for research on Mozambique. His work in Africa led him in 1990 to Care International-Mozambique, where he monitored emergency relief efforts as the Assistant Director of the Emergency Relief Program. Ishaug has also worked for the Africa-America Institute, the nation’s premier non-governmental organization committed to improving relations between the United States and Africa. In 2002, he accepted the Jonathan Mann Health Human Rights Award on behalf of AFC for its trailblazing work to expand sterile syringe availability in Illinois and reduce HIV transmission caused by injection drug use. He currently serves on the board of directors of Funders Concerned About AIDS, the Old Town School of Folk Music, and World Bicycle Relief. Mark’s interests include gigong, meditation, endurance sports, animals and animal rights, and music.

Ishaug received an M.A. in political science from Northwestern University and a B.A. in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame.