Current LA Institute programs at over 200 local area high schools (LA, Long Beach, Orange County)

Mark Friedman is the Education Director for the LA Maritime Institute in San Pedro.

Mark has taught marine biology, Honors Marine Biology and Physio-Anatomy at Animo Leadership Charter high school, part of the Green Dot (GD) public schools for 14 years. The school is located in Lennox/Inglewood with similar demographics to many LA areas.  He has B.A. in History and Political Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA, as well as various teaching certificates from Loyola Marymount, UCLA, and El Camino College.

As a high school teacher, he established a marine biology program that includes: QuikSCience and National Ocean Science Bowl competitive teams; two-dozen annual scholarships and internships for students in STEM fields, winning entries by students in the LA Science Fair, and a marine biology club of 50+ annually.

In addition, for 19 years Mark has volunteered at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro.  His leadership in the City2Sea program enables him to take, without cost, students on marine research expeditions to international conferences in Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, Cuba. The students also participate in various zoom and webinar conferences and symposiums.

Since 2016, Mark has been the education director at the LA Maritime Institute.  He has written grants and developed the only bilingual marine science program for LA Unified Schools, as well as other Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Ecology and Mathematics programs for the Institute, including tall ships "on-board" programs training crew and teachers alike at High School and Aquaria science meetings.