Mark Patterson

Mark A. Patterson serves as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), which educates more than 72,000 children of active-duty military and DoD civilian families. As DoDEA CIO, Mr. Patterson oversees the information technology operation of the .EDU network for 160 accredited schools in 8 districts located in 11 foreign countries, 7 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Currently, Mr. Patterson is leading DoDEA through an IT transformation, which includes the migration to Microsoft 365 for Education, cloud storage, and a significant application rationalization effort.

Mr. Patterson’s 30-year career in information technology spans across multiple disciples – to include Networking and Information Assurance – specializing in deploying emerging technologies around the world. Prior to joining DoDEA, Mr. Patterson served as the Director, Information Technology for the US Army Civilian Human Resources Agency (CHRA) where he oversaw Civilian Human Resources IT staff that provided the full spectrum of IT systems and services to over 200,000 Army Civilians worldwide.

Mr. Patterson proudly serviced 10 years of active duty in the United States Army before becoming an Army Civilian and continues to serve in that capacity. Mr. Patterson deployed with the 7/159 AVN Regiment in support of Operation Desert Storm, Desert Shield, and Provide Comfort; commonly known as the first Gulf War. As a member of the 10th Mountain Division, he also took part in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia as well as numerous technical and tactical missions with the 11th Signal Brigade out of Ft Huachuca, Ariz.