Mark Schwehn was Professor of Humanities at Valparaiso University, where he also served as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. He was a 2014/2015 resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute.

Schwehn attained a Bachelor of Arts in History and Philosophy from Valparaiso University and a Doctor of Philosophy in History and Humanities from Stanford University, where his doctoral dissertation won the 1978 Allan Nevins Prize, awarded annually by the Society of American Historians to the most distinguished PhD thesis in the field of American History.