Dr. Cynthia Clark

Cynthia Clark Speaker Biography

Dr. Cynthia Clark is Founder of Civility MattersTM, Professor Emeritus at Boise State University, and an award-winning professor, scholar, and author. As a clinician, she specialized in adolescent mental health, substance abuse intervention and recovery, and suicide and violence prevention. Dr. Clark’s ground-breaking work on fostering civility and healthy work environments has brought national and international attention to the controversial issues of incivility in academic and work environments around the globe. Her theory-driven interventions, empirical measurements, theoretical models, and reflective assessments provide best practices to prevent, measure, and address uncivil behavior and to create healthy workplaces.

Dr. Clark is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the NLN Academy of Nursing Education, and served as cochair for the American Nurses Association Professional Panel on Incivility, Bullying, and Workplace Violence. She is a prolific researcher, presenter, author, and professional blogger. Her presentations number in the hundreds and her publications have appeared in a broad range of peer-reviewed and open-access venues. She is the recipient of numerous teaching, research, and service awards; including 3-time recipient of the Most Inspirational Professor Award, NLN Excellence in Educational Research Award, Journal of Nursing Education Christine A. Tanner Scholarly Writing Award, Nurse Educator Kathleen T. Heinrich Writing Award, Elizabeth Russell Belford Award for Excellence in Education, awarded by Sigma Theta Tau International, and the John P. McGovern Lectureship award conferred by the American Association of Colleges on Nursing. Dr. Clark has been honored as a Distinguished Scholar at 12 universities. The first edition of her book, Creating and Sustaining Civility in Nursing Education,” received 1st place honors as the 2013 AJN Book of the Year. The 2nd edition is now available. Dr. Clark’s newest book, Core Competencies of Civility for Nursing & Healthcare was recently released and a must-read for all nurses and health care professionals.

Dr. Clark's current research includes preparing nurses to address incivility in the practice setting; bridging the education-practice gap to create positive work cultures, designing and testing empirical instruments to measure and address incivility; integrating civility into nursing curricula; and conducting intervention studies to measure the effectiveness of cognitive rehearsal to address incivility and protect patient safety. Dr. Clark’s empirical instruments have been translated into several languages and used to conduct studies in the United States, Israel, Iran, Indonesia, the Philippines, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, Jordan, Canada, Uganda, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Jamaica, Greece, Columbia, Brazil, Taiwan, Turkey, and Pakistan. The Incivility in Nursing Education-Revised (INE-R) has been translated into 16 languages and a multisite, international study led by Drs. Mohammed Baqer Al-Jobouri and Patience Samson-Akpan has been conducted in 11 countries (Iraq, South Africa, Greece, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, the Philippines, the US, Kenya, Chile, and Serbia). Dr. Clark has served as a committee member and content expert for several national and international graduate level studies; many students have used her empirical instruments in doctoral dissertations, master’s theses, and other scholarly works.

Dr. Clark is also well known for her expertise in scholarly teaching and learner-centered pedagogies. She has mentored dozens of faculty members in their growth as scholarly and inclusive educators and has conducted numerous classroom observations and assessments to assist faculty in improving their pedagogical approaches. Her numerous publications and presentations have provided learners and educators with leading-edge, evidencebased, and learner-centered strategies to inspire deep learning, improve learning outcomes, and foster student engagement.