Mark Yessian

Mark R. Yessian, PhD, is an independent consultant. He retired from the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in December 2005.

Yessian has broad experience as an evaluator, manager, teacher, writer, and speaker. But at the core he views his professional identity primarily as an analyst, as one who seeks to add perspective and understanding to current conditions. His major interests at present are health care quality oversight and accountability mechanisms in the public sector.

From 1987 to 2003, Yessian served as Regional Inspector General for Evaluation and Inspections in the Boston Office of Inspector General. In that capacity, he was responsible for the development, conduct, and preparation of national evaluations addressing health and human services issues. Among the major studies that he and his staff conducted in those years were those concerning the protection of human subjects in clinical trials; external quality oversight of hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, dialysis facilities, and human tissue banks; effectiveness of Food and Drug Administration efforts concerning food safety and dietary supplements; access to organ transplantation; performance of State medical boards and Medicare peer review.

Subsequently, from July 2003 until his retirement, Yessian served in various capacities in the Washington, D.C. in the headquarters office of the Inspector General. This included a two-month stretch as acting Deputy Assistant Inspector General for the Office of Evaluation and Inspections (OEI). From July 2004 to October 2005, he served as OEI’s Director of Regional Operations, responsible for the oversight of OEI’s eight regional offices.

Yessian first joined the Federal Government in 1971 in Washington, D.C. He served then as a special assistant in the Office of the Secretary for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Subsequently, he worked in several positions in the Office of the Regional Director and Office of Inspector General in the Boston office.

During 1976 and 1977, Yessian served as Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Management at Suffolk University in Boston. In later years, he taught graduate classes as an adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Northeastern University and in the School of Social Work at the University of Connecticut. During 1983 and 1984, he served as Director of Policy Analysis for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.

Yessian was co-editor of the New England Journal of Human Services, a national publication that was a benefit of membership of the human services section of the American Society of Public Administration. He has had articles published in books and in many professional journals, including Public Administration Review, American Behavioral Scientist, Social Service Review, and Journal of the American Medical Association.He has been a frequent speaker at national meetings of professional associations and has testified on a number of occasions at Congressional hearings.

In 1970, Dr. Yessian received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University. In 1964, he received a B.A. in government from Clark University.