The Marks Family Business: Teaching, Capturing the Imaginations of Students from Nursery School to Graduate School

There were so many moments that let Aaron S. Marks ’24 DHSc know, even as an elementary school student and again in middle and high school, that he would one day be a teacher and a coach. He came from a family of educators and had coaches who always found ways to get the best out of him.

By the time he was 13, he was helping coach children just starting out in baseball.

While he excelled immediately in baseball, school was another matter. “In middle school, a teacher would say this assignment should take around 20 minutes, and it would take me an hour and a half,” he said. “For a long time, I struggled to read.”

But he dug in and always did the work. “Our family values education so much,” he said.

In high school, he had history teachers who urged him on, who inspired him and made him think, “This is what I want to do. I knew I wanted the chance to work with the next generation and find new ways to help them do well in the classroom and in sports.”

But the biggest inspiration came right where he lived. When he was in middle and high school, his father, Brian, would encourage him to observe his evening classes. “I saw what college was like and I’d see how my father always had his students engaged,” Aaron said. “He had such a passion; it drew the students right in.”

A senior lecturer and executive director of the Pompea College of Business’ entrepreneurship and innovation program and a lecturer in the School of Health Sciences, Brian A. Marks, J.D., Ph.D., has decades of experience in government, business, works as a consultant, is an entrepreneur, and, for nearly five decades, has been a softball and baseball umpire. He loved when Aaron would come to a class.

“Aaron was a sponge, particularly in discussions pertaining to complex issues,” he said. “I think he saw that I encouraged my students to identify issues, use critical analysis, and have an opinion based upon the facts.”

Aaron’s mother, Lynne, taught nursey school, and he liked to stop by after school to help in the classroom, noticing how she infused so much joy and energy into her teaching.

His father said it was clear from the start that Aaron was “destined to be in academia. Even his family’s original surname, Melamed – according to family lore – means teacher.”

Inspired by his family, his high school teachers, and his coaches, he decided to pursue a teaching degree at Elon University in North Carolina., where he was a national teaching fellow and gained teaching experience in classrooms in each of his four years.

He taught world history at the Center for Global Studies in the Norwalk Public Schools and left to earn a master’s degree in educational technology at Fairfield University, where he was an academic adviser to underrepresented students and also taught a first-year experience course, finding a real calling. “I knew I wanted to work with college students,” he said.

Around that time, he heard about the University launching a Health Sciences doctoral program that focused on educational leadership – blending the things he cared about: academics, athletics, and his concern for athletes’ health and well-being – and think entrepreneurially about it. Throughout the years, he has continued to coach and work one on one with athletes, and he saw how they often didn’t disclose when they had concussion symptoms.

His doctoral thesis centered on “Disclosure of Concussion Symptoms: Perspectives of NCAA Division II Student-Athletes” and he wrote an op-ed in The Hartford Courant on the importance of schools following the law to disclose student-athletes’ concussions.

“I was an athlete my whole life,” said Aaron. “What ties directly to my dissertation is I had a few concussions, and mine were more substantial. There was no ability to hide them, and my dissertation talks about nondisclosure and why that’s so prevalent in athletes today. I’d love to use my position as a way to advocate and change the mindsets of athletes, health care managers and athletic directors and make sure we are focused on the athletes’ physical and mental health.”

Aaron said he gained a great deal from the School of Health Sciences faculty, including Karl Minges, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor and associate dean of research; lecturer Deborah List, M.A., MPH, Ph.D., and David Lane, M.S. interim director of the Master of Healthcare Administration program, as well as former Interim President Sheahon Zenger, Ph.D., who was on his dissertation committee.

Dr. Zenger, who previously had been director of athletics at the University of New Haven (before becoming interim president) and the University of Kansas – and was recently named the president of Illinois Wesleyan University – “told me to take a breath and be here in the moment. He said that while this process – working toward your doctorate – may be a challenge, ‘enjoy the process because it’s going to make you someone different. Be in the moment for everything!’”

While earning his doctorate, Aaron became a colleague of his father’s, teaching in the Pompea College as well as in the College of Arts and Sciences. “I loved working at the University of New Haven with him,” he said.

His father felt the same. “It is quite rewarding to engage with one’s son not only as a father, but also as a colleague, I was able to do the same with my father,” Brian said. “I also look forward to writing an academic article with him; we have already collaborated on a presentation related to our mutual interests in leadership, decision-making, and game theory.”

Now, Aaron will chart a new path, in a full-time position as clinical lecturer in healthcare and general management in the LaPenta School of Business at Iona University, in New Rochelle, New York. He will be teaching sport management, business and society, healthcare industry analysis, and international human resource management. He plans to continue his research as well.

It has been quite a journey, he said, “and not the typical one for a college faculty member.” But he said he’s very happy with the way it has gone so far.

“I would love to be a university administrator one day if the opportunity is right,” Aaron said. “My father advised me to ‘just keep growing.’ My Dad and my mom have always lived that way, and that’s the way I’d like to continue to be.”