Published Articles

Read more about the article Commentary: For a break from despair, look around and look up
1968: The lunar orbital plan profile for the manned Apollo 8 shuttle - its proposed trajectory around the moon to assess potential landing sites for future Apollo missions. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)

Commentary: For a break from despair, look around and look up

My guest commentary was published in the Times Union of Albany, N.Y. on May 22, 2022 Getty Images Are we as a species so mired in our current misery that we’ve metaphorically taken our eye off the ball that could help us? The existential crises demanding our attention pummel us continually. Grim news of the deadly global pandemic, accelerating climate change, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, political maneuvering aimed at autocracy, paycheck-eating inflation, and other calamities pile up daily. It’s easy, then, to understand why so many of us think we live…

Continue ReadingCommentary: For a break from despair, look around and look up
Read more about the article Op Ed: Starbucks backs its words with action
Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia

Op Ed: Starbucks backs its words with action

Direct response to crisis shows companies how best to react By Mark Marchand/For the Daily Gazette | April 27, 2018 Actions speak louder than words. Just ask Starbucks about the value of this old adage. The large coffee house company is driving home a lesson many of us learned when we were young. To learn about responsibility and accountability, teachers, mentors, parents, and others employed this old saying to help us understand what we needed to do when something went wrong. In situations ranging from merely uncomfortable circumstances with a friend or family member…

Continue ReadingOp Ed: Starbucks backs its words with action

Mapping a vision

I wrote the following article for the Adirondack Explorer newspaper, reporting on a new 30-year vision plan for the six-million-acre Adirondack Park, researched and written by the Adirondack Council. Below the article is a link to where the article resides on the newspaper's website. ***** Mapping a vision November 16, 2021 Vision 2050 report cover Adirondack Council plots journey to improved park management and communities By Mark A. Marchand Building on a 129-year-old promise to protect and nurture the Adirondack Park, the Adirondack Council on Tuesday unveiled a comprehensive roadmap for the…

Continue ReadingMapping a vision

Community News: Clifton Park author takes readers along U.S. Route 1, from Maine to Florida

By Glenn Griffith ggriffith@digitalfirstmedia.com @CNWeekly on Twitter Jul 31, 2018 CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. >> A local man has done what many long to do: hit the road without a schedule and see what’s around the next bend. Now he has written a book about his trip. In the summer of 2014, Clifton Park resident Mark Marchand fulfilled a long held desire to travel the entire length of the East Coast using one road, U.S. Route 1. The 2,440 mile-long highway is the same distance as the more famous Route 66, but unlike…

Continue ReadingCommunity News: Clifton Park author takes readers along U.S. Route 1, from Maine to Florida

The student-athlete at a leading science and engineering university

Students at high-level academic universities like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are an impressive cohort of students. They somehow manage to keep up with their rigorous academic research and classroom work while pursuing athletics full-time. I spent some time with a group of them at RPI while writing this story for the RPI alumni magazine. Here's a link to the issue with the cover story.

Continue ReadingThe student-athlete at a leading science and engineering university