* Mark Ensalaco earned a B.A. at SUNY-Buffalo in 1981, an M.T.S. in Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School in 1984, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the State University of New York in 1991.

* Ensalaco’s teaching and research focus heavily on human rights and political violence, with a particular emphasis given to Latin American studies. He worked as a researcher and teacher in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Nicaragua (where he served as an international observer to its 1990 elections), and Chile. In 1991 Ensalaco was a visiting professor at the School of Law at the Universidad de Concepción in Chile, where he drafted a proposal to re-establish the social science program which had been terminated by former president Augusto Pinochet.

* Ensalaco has authored two books: Chile Under Pinochet: Recovering the Truth (1999), and Middle Eastern Terrorism: From Black September to September 11 (2007). He also co-edited (with Linda Majka) Children’s Human Rights: Progress and Challenges for Children Worldwide (2005).

* In an April 2017 op-ed, Ensalaco denounced President Trump for having “proposed deep budget cuts to the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other agencies that provide humanitarian relief,” “without regard for their impacts” on needy people around the world.