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Mark Brinkman
Operations/Clinical Assistant, Safety Officer and Weekend Administrator

Mark’s title is long as is his commitment to CooperRiis and our residents.  If you ask him what he like best about his job, his answer is: It gives me a chance to "love".  His wife of 13 years suffered from a mental illness and it gave him new insights into the social stigma and the actuality of what it means to be mentally ill.  Sadly, she died from anorexia nervosa.

Mark spent twelve years in the US Navy and was medically retired due to an injury sustained on the job; he then worked for 15 years as a land surveyor. His first job at a residential therapeutic farm was at Spring Lake Ranch in Vermont but he wanted to come back south and to his home in Greenville, SC.  He had secured a job with The Department of Homeland Security but it would not start for a few months so he contacted CooperRiis about volunteering for a few months since it was close to home.  Well, the rest is of course history….

Mark now lives in Mill Spring, NC in a log cabin with his rescue dog Terry, a cat named Sputnik and a canary named Joey.  He is a Qi Gong teacher and collects and trades audio gear.