Mark Baer is a lifelong actor, director, and producer of live theatre with a passion for cultivating communities. After gaining a BS in Theatre Performance from The University of Findlay (OH), Mark traveled the Midwest acting with many theatres in small communities including Virginia Shakespeare Festival (Williamsburg, VA), The Warehouse Theatre (Greenville, SC), Kentucky Repertory Theatre (Horse Cave, KY) and Commonweal Theatre Company (Lanesboro, MN). Favorite roles include Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Joshua in Anouilh's Ring Round the Moon, and Hovstad in Ibsen's An Enemy of the People.

In 2002, Mark accepted the position of Managing Director of St. Croix Festival Theatre, a small professional theatre in St. Croix Falls, WI. In his term, Festival Theatre produced over 20 plays and musicals including the anti-war drama There Shall Be No Night by Robert Sherwood, under Mark's direction. His time in leadership in St. Croix Falls only strengthened his resolve that live theatre can make a difference in small-town America.

Mark received his MFA in Directing from Illinois State University. His ISU productions included Bloody Poetry by Howard Brenton, The Winter's Tale, Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, and Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. While at ISU, Mark also directed The Birds by Aristophanes at Eureka College, Once Upon a Mattress by Mary Rogers at St. Croix Festival Theatre, and interned under Peter Rothstein on M. Butterfly at The Guthrie Theatre.

In the fall of 2011, Mark accepted a tenure-track appointment as Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing at Indiana University Northwest. Now a tenured Associate Professor, Mark teaches Acting (all levels), Directing (all levels), Script Analysis and Sound Design. He produces and directs a play nearly every semester for Theatre Northwest. Favorite productions have included Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Jeffrey Hatcher, Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Well by Lisa Kron, afterlife: a ghost story by Steve Yockey, Failure: A Love Story by Phillip Dawkins, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, The Miser adapted by Timothy Mooney, Little Shop of Horrors by Ashman and Menkin, and Hedda Gabler adapted by Jon Robin Baitz.

In 2013, Mark became one of the founding members of Gary Shakespeare Company, a non-profit theatre company dedicated to providing free public performances of the work of William Shakespeare. Now looking forward to its tenth season, GSC reaches over 1000 audience members each summer in various outdoor venues around Northwest Indiana. Over the years, Mark performed several roles including MacBeth and Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing), and directed As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, and Hamlet. After many years as President, Mark stepped down in 2022.

Recently Mark has employed the collaboration, project management, and public speaking skills developed in the performing arts to other endeavors across Indiana University. After ten years on the Faculty Organization Executive Committee and two terms as Faculty President (2020-2023), Mark was awarded a Faculty Fellowship to the Vice President for Regional Campuses and Online Education. He is currently the coordinator of the Regional Faculty Council and working on Faculty Affairs issues across the regional campuses.

Mark continues to act, direct, and produce in Northwest Indiana and beyond. Regional directing work has included Jeffrey Hatcher’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Commonweal Theatre Company, Chess in Concert and Sondheim's Sweeney Todd for City Circle Acting Company, Victor Gialanella 's Frankenstein at Chicago Street Theatre, John Goodrum's The Nightmare Room (regional premiere) and Robin Hawdon's Perfect Wedding (US premier) for Towle Theatre, and Sam Shepard’s True West, Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire for St. Croix Festival Theatre.

Mark now makes his home in Crown Point, Indiana where he lives with his wife Kelly and daughter Samantha.