Heather Clark, DrPH, MSPH

Education and Training

• Texas A&M University, School Public Health, DrPH, Social and Behavioral Health, 2014
• Texas A&M University, School Public Health, MSPH, Social and Behavioral Health, 2005
• Texas A&M University, BS, Health, 1995

Research Interests

• Healthy Communities
• Community Collaboration/Partnerships
• Program Evaluation
• Network Analysis

Awards, Recognition and Service

• Dr. Clark received her doctorate in 2014 following a decade of work in non-profit health and human service organizations in the Brazos Valley. This experience in local community organizations affords her a unique connection when working with local community partners. Moving to the School of Public Health as Center Coordinator at the Center for Community Health Development (a CDC funded Prevention Research Center), Clark spent the next decade evaluating community capacity building efforts, assisting in conducting community health assessments, designing evaluations for community-based partnerships and public health programs, and served as evaluator and co-investigator on a variety of other research and contract projects. Clark's research interests include program evaluation, community organizing and capacity building, and the evaluation of community based partnerships, specifically the use of interorganizational network analysis to examine growth in the partnerships. She currently serves as co-Prinicpal Investigator on two state-wide evaluation projects and has been a co-investigator on numerous supplemental grants and contracts, including assessment, evaluation, and other public health projects. Clark's other interests include rural-urban health disparities (which are well described in the literature) and addressing rural health issues from multiple perspectives via partnerships in order to affect change. Building rural community capacity to identify health and health related issues in a community and further building a community-driven plan to bring about change is the foundation for the work of the Center for Community Health Development. The past 14 years Clark has participated in research focused on community organizing, capacity building, and evaluating the impact of these community partnerships. Clark has 21 peer-reviewed presentations at national and international conferences, four peer-reviewed journal articles, one book chapter, and one technical report since 2014. Mentoring and working with undergraduate and graduate students allows Clark to mentor young researchers and practitioners. She has served on one doctoral and three master's committees.