Martin Lessem

Tell us about your personal and professional journey.

Martin works as a Regulatory Consultant helping Pharmaceutical Companie navigate the global Health Authorities in getting their Clinical Trials moving and their products approved. He graduated from Rider University in 2001 with a Bachelors in Political Science, and while there began working political campaigns, including two Congressional Campaigns, a Senatorial Campaign, and a Presidential Campaign. After College, he went on to Widener Law School.

A desire to continue his education brought him to UIS for his Master’s Degree. While taking a class where we discussed the issues with the California Correctional Union, he was inspired to look into recidivism and how the treatment of inmates in Scandinavia leads to considerably different outcomes than what we have in the United States. He plans to pursue a PhD in Political History and is preparing to apply to schools in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and Canada at the end of the year as he is helping with large Get-Out-The-Vote efforts in the New England area for November's Midterms.

In his copious amounts of non-existent free-time, he enjoys traveling the world, where he has been to 25% of all recognized UN Countries and also works as a Travel Advisor on the side; Political activism, having joined his local Indivisible last year and helped plan their Hands Off, No Kings 1, 2, & 3 rallies as the Co-Lead for Safety & Deescallation; Recording and hosting two different podcasts, one on travel called Globetrotting with Lynx and one on political history called Power & Politics: Unraveling History; Being a pet dad to his two cats and a hedgehog.

He also volunteers with both the Air Force and Coast Guard Auxiliaries as a Search and Rescue drone pilot and recently got certified as an instructor on the Skydio X10D Platform.