Mark Francis

Mark Francis is the immediate past president of DISES and Jamaica DISES conference planner. Previously he served for a number of years as treasurer. He is a former local and county director of special education in Michigan. He has been very involved with professional development and training in other countries as well as in the U.S. since his retirement from the school district. In the U. S. he is doing training with the Bureau of Indian Education, and he has conducted systems analysis for a number of school districts on the qualities of their special education programs.

In 2016 Mark planned, arranged and conducted a successful conference on inclusive education in Havana, Cuba. It was the first ever English-speaking conference in Cuba.

He has done major work in the West Indies including assisting education officials in conducting a conference on inclusive education in Kingston, Jamaica. He was also part of a team that worked on Policy Reform in Tobago. This team included a team from the US, local professionals and members of the Ministry, along with parents and parent advocates. While in Jamaica in 2019, Mark, along with Dr. Alice Farling and Dr. Michele Meredith worked to secure 7 major grants for inclusion for the Caribbean region. This grant will work in developing Inclusive Practices with the governments in the region. Recently Mark has done professional training in Tobago, Poland, Kuwait, South Africa, Dubai and Jamaica.