Mark Kryzer has lived and worked in Afghanistan for a total of 15 years and has been involved with the country and its people for most of his adult life. He attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota South Asia Center with the support of a National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship (NDFL) where he studied Persian language and was granted an M.A. in South Asian Studies and Islamic History after completing his thesis on Afghanistan.
After graduate school Mark joined the U.S. Department of State and served on the Afghanistan Task Force and later at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan as a Political Officer managing Afghan programs. Subsequent to the State Department Mark returned to the U.S. where he acquired an MBA in Program Management and Organizational Development and served as a management consultant to Government.
Mark returned to Afghanistan in 2003 with The Asia Foundation for ten years designing and managing various programs aimed at strengthening Afghan Government institutions. He eventually became the Country Representative to Afghanistan for The Asia Foundation and worked with the Office of the President, Ministry of Interior, Office of Administrative Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Independent Directorate of Local Governance, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of State for Parliamentary Affairs, and Kabul Municipality.