Mark Dischler

About Mark Dischler

I am a technology leader and strategist with over 20 years of experience helping cultural institutions and mission-driven organizations navigate complex digital ecosystems. As CTO at Urban Insight, I work at the intersection of technology leadership, client advisory, and organizational development, mentoring engineering leaders, guiding technical strategy, and partnering with institutions on long-term digital transformation. My work focuses on developing emerging technical leaders, strengthening cross-department collaboration, and ensuring our engineering practices remain thoughtful, sustainable, and adaptable as technology evolves. Staying closely connected to our engineering and delivery work allows me to offer strategic guidance that is grounded, credible, and aligned with real-world constraints and opportunities. Externally, I represent Urban Insight across the industry as a speaker, collaborator, and community builder. I frequently present at MCN, DrupalCon, and other national conferences, co-host the Bureau of Digital’s Tech Leadership Role Call, and work closely with partners such as Pantheon to advance best practices in digital transformation for museums and nonprofits.

Experience

1. Chief Technology Officer

   Urban Insight

   Jul 2022 — Present

   As CTO of Urban Insight, I lead the company\'s technology strategy, guide the development and growth of our engineering team, and serve as a senior advisor to major cultural and nonprofit institutions. My work spans technology leadership, people development, client strategy, and industry representation.• Lead the technology vision and roadmap for the agency, including architecture standards, AI adoption, engineering practices, and long-term platform strategy for Drupal, WordPress, and composable/Next.js solutions.• Develop and mentor engineering leaders across the department, including Tech Leads, Senior Developers, and managers; coached team members into Technical Strategist and Solutions Architect roles; strengthened cross-department collaboration with PM, Design, and Revenue teams.• Serve as a strategic and technical advisor to high-profile clients, helping them navigate complex digital ecosystems, technical planning, and multi-year transformation initiatives.Exceeded annual strategic advisory revenue targets by more than 2×.• Represent Urban Insight across the industry, speaking at and attending MCN, DrupalCon, AAM, ASAE, and other conferences; co-host the Bureau of Digital’s Tech Leadership Role Call and publish thought leadership on digital strategy and innovation in the cultural sector.• Strengthen UI’s technical execution and delivery, ensuring high-quality architecture decisions, consistent development standards, and the thoughtful integration of emerging tools and AI into client and internal workflows.

Education

• Washington University in St. Louis

  BA, Japanese, Anthropology

  1992 — 1996

Skills

• Drupal
• Art Direction
• Certified Scrum Master
• Css
• Product Management
• Relational Databases
• Book Design
• Digital Media
• Email Marketing
• Video Production
• Web Video
• Publishing
• Databases
• Social Media
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Project Management
• Mysql
• Strategic Communications
• Entertainment
• Video
• Graphic Design
• Branding & Identity
• Television
• Html
• Producing
• Documentaries
• Php
• New Media
• Content Management Systems (Cms)