Now a Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Mark Hetfield spent most of his career at HIAS, the world's oldest agency dedicated to serving refugees. He has served HIAS, a faith-based agency founded as the Hebrew Immigrants Aid Society, over four non-consecutive periods. Professor Hetfield began at HIAS as a Russian-speaking caseworker in 1989 in Rome, Italy, where he assisted Soviet Jews in applying for refugee resettlement to the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. He has also served HIAS as attorney-advisor to its Washington office, as Director of International Operations, Senior Vice President for Policy and Programs, and President and CEO.
In addition, Professor Hetfield practiced immigration law as an attorney at the law firm of Fulbright and Jaworksi, worked as an Appeals officer and Supervisory Appeals Officer at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and also as Assistant Officer in Charge at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. From 2003 to 2006, Professor Hetfield held various positions at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, where he led its groundbreaking study on the treatment of asylum seekers in expedited removal, authorized by Congress in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. In 2005, the American Immigration Lawyers Association awarded Professor Hetfield and his expedited removal study team the Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award.
A frequent commentator on refugees and asylum in major media, Professor Hetfield is proud to be a triple Hoya, having earned his B.S.F.S., J.D. and M.B.A. from Georgetown University.