The International Spy Museum (SPY) announces Dr. Mark Jacobson has joined the team as the new Historian, bringing over thirty years of perspective and experience working as a policymaker, academic, and uniformed servicemember to the position.

“Today, people are trying to make sense of a chaotic information landscape stuffed with facts, opinions, propaganda, misinformation, and misleading content,” shared Executive Director Chris Costa. “It’s our role at the International Spy Museum to serve as a trusted, nonpartisan source of information and help the public hone their ability to better decipher what is real. Dr. Mark Jacobson is exactly who the International Spy Museum – and our audience – needs right now to help make sense of the world around us.”

Dr. Jacobson was an Army psychological operations specialist and an intelligence officer in the US Navy with deployments to Bosnia and Afghanistan in support of US Special Operations Forces and the Defense Intelligence Agency. He also held appointments as a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense and Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and served in positions where he served as a foreign affairs adviser to Generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal during their assignments in Afghanistan. Earlier in his career, Jacobson worked on Capitol Hill as a member of the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee where he was part of the team investigating the treatment of detainees in US custody. He served at the Pentagon in multiple roles and was in his office on September 11, 2001 when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the wing where he worked.

Jacobson grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan and holds degrees from the University of Michigan, King’s College, University of London, and a PhD in Military History from The Ohio State University. He is a Senior Fellow at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy and in this role is the co-host of the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, a weekly discussion of the current and historical challenges of disinformation and political warfare. Dr. Jacobson also serves on the boards at the Pritzker Military Museum and Library, The World War II Foundation, and Villanova University’s LePage Center for History in the Public Interest. Jacobson is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He lives with his family in Washington, DC.

For more information, please visit spymuseum.org

About The Author

Dean Rogers

Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter

I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias to books to dictionaries to magazines. I’m also an avid television viewer, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!

My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.

Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD, earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.

As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked on red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my lifelong journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.

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