Imagineering Begins When you Can Inspire People to Think Outside the Box

 
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Curriculum Vitae

Mark Q. Rhoads has a strong background in writing, journalism, government  affairs, and public relations.  He studied at Loyola University of Chicago, The George Washington University, and the American University Graduate School of Government.  In 1982 he taught as a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  He also served six years in the U.S. Army Reserve where he was editor of a command newspaper in Chicago.

Mr. Rhoads was elected to serve as an Illinois State Senator (R-Cook County) for six years from 1977 to 1983.  The Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities named him Outstanding Legislator for 1979 and he was rated first in the Senate in 1980 by the Taxpayer’s Federation of Illinois. 

After re-locating to the Washington, DC area in 1984, Rhoads wrote more than 300 editorials for the Chicago Sun-Times between 1984 and 1987.  His op/ed articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, The Washington Times, and Illinois Issues magazine.  From 2000 to 2003, he was a frequent op/ed contributor to the UPI Outside Views syndicated service.  He had also ghost written op/eds, radio commentaries, and speeches.

He has been a guest on more than 200 radio and TV programs including Good Morning America on ABC-TV, The Nightly Business Report on PBS, and Weekend Report on CNN.  He has managed Rhoads & Associates Public Relations Consulting in Washington, DC since 1987.  He partnered with Emmy Award-winning reporter and former NBC Today Show co-host Jim Hartz to produce cable and public TV specials such as The Midwest Economic Summit in 1987 and Red Ink Nightmare in 1990. He also produced and co-hosted with the late Sen. Paul Simon a 1993 program NAFTA trade issues for Illinois PBS stations.

 

In photo at left Mark Rhoads (right) introduces Dr. Arun Gandhi (left) to a meeting of The International Platform Association in 1998.  Dr. Gandhi spoke on the principles of nonviolence that were championed by his grandfather and the founder of modern India, Mahatma Gandhi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Rhoads was Vice President of the United States Internet Council from 1996 to 2002.  He supervised editing for the 1999, 2000, and 2001 State of the Internet Reports.  He has testified before both congressional and state legislative committees and lectured on Internet policy in state capitals, Toronto, and London.

Mark Rhoads served for one year as president of the nonpartisan Illinois State Society of Washington, DC and he served three years in a volunteer capacity as President of the National Conference of State Societies.  He received a 1995 Silver Echo Award from the Direct Marketing Association of America for his radio and TV commercials. From 2002 to 2008, Rhoads was a state government legislative affairs consultant on homeland security issues for Digimarc, Inc.  Digimarc was the world’s largest maker of driver’s licenses and ID cards until the card division merged with L-1 Communications in August 2008.  Starting in 1984, his other public relations clients have included The National Tax Limitation Committee,  The American Tort Reform Association, The National Taxpayers Union, The American Legislative Exchange Council, Citizens Against Government Waste, The American Council for Health Care Reform, The International Platform Association, The Una Chapman Cox Foundation, The Council of American Ambassadors,  The American Foriegn Service Association, The Eisenhower Group, Inc., Regnery-Gateway Books, Effinity Online, and Maritime Telecommunications Network. Mark Rhoads was named as a member of the Lyons Township High School Hall of Fame in La Grange, Illinois in 1996.

 

 

Mark Rhoads at right introduces Bob Newhart at left at a Loyola University Reception in 1983.  To contact Mark Rhoads to manage your PR project, send an email to [email protected]

 

In 2009, Mark Rhoads has designed and built blogs for The Cheryl Felicia Rhoads Northern Virginia Acting School, The Transpartisan Imperative book site, Author Kieth Donadson, and the Illinois State Society Hall of Fame andHistory Blog.