Mark Fafard
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
Jacksonville, United States
Toptal member since September 7, 2026
Mark takes ideas from research to a launched, working result. He reviews how teams work today, delivers a prioritized roadmap, and builds AI integrated tools for data collection and data management, with human review built in. He designs and runs evaluation plans, beta tests every tool in two phases, and grades AI output against formal rubrics. A published researcher and editor with 16 years in healthcare and research operations, he also builds business models, trains teams, and secures grants.
Career Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Research Operations Workflow Platform
Small Business Class-based Operations
Protocol to Partner Identifier
The Mutation Lab
Evaluation and Beta Testing
Expertise
- Analytical Thinking
- Anthropic
- Business Development
- Needs Analysis
- Operations
- Pattern Recognition
- Research
- Workflow
Work Experience
Founder
Fafard AI Solutions
- Led structured discovery, design, and delivery of custom operational tools as fixed-price, one-time builds the client owns outright.
- Operated internal tooling portfolio that doubles as client-facing proof points.
- Led business development, proposal writing, pricing, and client onboarding.
Clinical Research Manager
University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville
- Provided strategic leadership for the My Needs Network and the Community Entrepreneurial Collaborative.
- Developed strategic partnerships, secured funding, and launched tools and platforms.
- Served on UF Small Business Relations Mentor Protégé Program and Planning Committee.
- Directed proposal development across multiple grants.
- Led Office of Research Affairs' digital infrastructure builds.
- Managed graduate and undergraduate public health interns across multiple projects.
Co-founder
Community Entrepreneurial Collaborative (CEC)
- Secured Community Foundation of Northeast Florida grant as lead author.
- Designed and launched a web platform serving as a centralized entrepreneurial networking hub with automated matching, free lead referral tools, and virtual landing pages.
- Applied methodology and framework to transition into an AI-integrated platform.
- Built partnerships across university research infrastructure, educational institutions, business development organizations, and community partners.
Founder and Managing Director
My Needs Network (MNN)
- Established a co-ownership agreement with the University of Florida covering software, database, and AI/ML frameworks.
- Designed and implemented software licensing agreement and replicable commercial model capabilities.
- Led the development of an organization-specific reinforced language model for personalized resource matching and intelligent navigation.
- Directed accessibility conformance testing and consistent software beta testing runs.
- Structured the content library on a community-validated taxonomy of need areas.
- Implemented structured evaluation of AI output and managed years of beta testing.
- Secured United Way Health Literacy Micro-Grant partnership for language model development.
- Designed and executed an IRB-approved two-phase CBPR study (UFIRB201601279 and UFIRB201701781) establishing the evidence foundation for every platform feature.
- Published peer-reviewed research in the Journal of Participatory Research Methods (2025).
- Designed and executed multi-channel marketing campaigns.
Clinical Research Manager
Baptist Health Research Institute
- Served as primary liaison among BHRI, study sponsors, Baptist administration, IRBs, investigators, and clinical research coordinators.
- Led grant submission for federal and foundation funding as primary author and grant manager.
- Authored research manuscripts, SOPs, and technical documentation.
Education
Master's Degree in Community Health Promotion and Health Education
University of North Florida - Jacksonville, FL, USA
Bachelor's Degree in History
University of North Florida - Jacksonville, FL, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology
University of North Florida - Jacksonville, FL, USA
Certifications
Agents
Mercor
WKI Certified Coach
Wendy Kennedy Institute
Strategic Communications Academy
UF Center for Public Interest Communications
Skills
Finance
Business Intelligence (BI), Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Pricing, Market Research, Fundraising, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Startup Funding, Data Analysis, Financial Modeling, Pricing Strategy, Comparable Company Analysis, Budgeting, Lifetime Value (LTV)
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, SharePoint
Industry Expertise
Nonprofits, Healthcare, Healthcare Startups
Data & Analysis Software
Intact Software
Other
Anthropic, Qualtrics, Qualitative Research, Research, Needs Analysis, Communication, Analytical Thinking, Technical Writing, Writing & Editing, Pattern Recognition, Workflow, Operations, Business Development, Partnerships, Strategic Planning, Strategy, Strategy Planning, Growth Strategy, Business Operations, Management Consulting, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, Claude, Dashboards, Data Visualization, Reporting, Marketing Strategy, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategy, Digital Marketing Strategy, Digital Marketing, Stakeholder Engagement, Process Improvement, Process Design, Performance Improvement, Business Process Optimization, Business Process Analysis, Automation, Training, Operating Models, Learning, Stakeholder Interviews, Workshop Facilitation, Business Consulting, Business Planning, Roadmaps, Strategy Consulting, Survey Design, Survey Development & Analysis, Surveys, AI Automation, Process Automation, AI Adoption, Product Strategy, Project Management, Business Transformation, Customer Experience, Communication Strategy, Corporate Communications, Written Communication, Interviewing, Teamwork, People Management, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Executive Communication, Stakeholder Communication, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Architecture, Stakeholder Management, Startup Consulting, Business Model Development, Business Plan Consulting, Business Modeling, HIPAA Compliance, Large Language Models (LLMs), Prompt Engineering, Management, Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), AI Evaluation, Data Privacy, Electronic Health Records (EHR), HIPAA, Privacy, Reinforcement Learning, Business Proposals, Data Annotation, Request for Proposal (RFP), Sales, Marketing, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Market Research & Analysis, Growth Marketing, Risk & Compliance, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Software as a Service (SaaS), Marketplace Platforms, Product-market Fit, Capital Planning, Communications Management, Change Management, Enablement, Leadership, Audience Targeting, Consumer Research, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Acquisition, Consumer Health, Bookkeeping, Annotations, Appeals, Claims, Denials Management, Regulatory Compliance, Reviews, Startups, Epic, Regulatory Analysis, Supabase, GitHub, AWS Copilot, Microsoft Power Automate, Outlook, OneDrive, Microsoft Power BI, Evaluation, Qualitative Analysis, Community Development, Grants, Public Health, Primary Research, Mixed Method Research, Ethnography, Cultural Adaptability, B2B Partnerships, Contract, Protocol Development, Negotiation, Clinical Research, Population Health, Training & Training Content Development, Small Business Management, Scaling, Budget Management, Executive Consulting, Ideation Workshops, Legal Research, Business Model Canvas, Customer Discovery, Website Design, SPSS, Telehealth
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