A Plan to Improve TUSD

Mark Stegeman grew up in northern California, attending public schools, playing the clarinet badly, and working in a sheet metal fabrication plant after school and during holidays, mostly as a machine operator. After graduating from the local junior college, he completed his junior and senior years at Pomona College, where he graduated Magna cum Laude with a double major in mathematics and economics. Mark received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the top schools in Economics in the world in that field. He taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Virginia Tech before joining the faculty of the Eller College of Business at the University of Arizona.

While at Virginia Tech, Mark was part of a team of engineers, economists, and other experts who advised Hughes Telecommunications on satellite projects. As a longtime owner of commercial property and apartments, Mark has business experience and knows the practical importance of controlling costs.

As a tenured professor at the University of Arizona, Mark has taught introductory economics and intermediate microeconomics to large undergraduate classes, and game theory (the study of strategic decision making) to small Ph.D. classes. He also serves on the university-wide General Education Committee.

Mark became part of the Tucson Unified School District family when the board appointed him as a charter member of the district’s audit committee. He attended scores of board meetings before running for the board in 2008. He was reelected in 2012 by a wide margin.

On the TUSD Board, Mark has been a tireless advocate for academic excellence. “I firmly believe that TUSD can again become a great district, one that is a point of civic pride and enables students to reach their full potential,” he says. “I also believe that restoring the strength of America’s public education system, including large traditional school districts, is critical for our future economic strength. A well-educated population is one of our essential economic and moral resources.”

Mark is running for his second term on the TUSD Board in November 2016.