Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence

Mark Baldwin spent 40 years as an award-winning journalist, journalism educator and news executive. He is a former executive editor of the Rockford Register Star, and previously worked for news organizations in Wisconsin, Kansas, Chicago and Washington, D.C.  He is an expert at identifying audiences, defining communications and marketing strategy, and editing and publishing material for diverse audiences. He has proven skills in community engagement, public relations, digital and social media, and project management, and deep experience developing organizational culture, building teams, and mentoring and training future leaders.

In addition to his professional experience, Mark has spent years as a member of nonprofit boards and is currently a member of the boards of United Way of Rock River Valley and Jeremiah Development. He previously was on the boards of the News Leaders Association and Associated Press Managing Editors and is a former president of the Wisconsin Associated Press Editors. He has organized programming for national and state conferences. He is a co-founder of 815 Choose Civility, a project that advocates for and teaches civility as a cornerstone of civic life.

A native of Chicago, Mark holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University.

Mark provides services in areas including:

• Internal/external communications
• Crisis communications
• Media relations
• Marketing
• Mission development
• Community engagement
• Collaboration
• Group facilitation
• Leadership development
• Grant writing
• Team building
• Volunteer recruitment and management
• Annual reports