Dr. Kirsty A. Clark (she/her/hers) is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist. She serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health & Society and Public Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University and as a core faculty member in the Vanderbilt LGBT Policy Lab. Dr. Clark’s program of research focuses on examining mental health disparities, especially suicide, impacting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) populations and developing evidence-based interventions to disrupt the course of such disparities. Dr. Clark’s training background spans interdisciplinary fields of psychology, public health, and epidemiology, and her research profile reflects this interdisciplinary nature through robust qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods health disparities research projects. Dr. Clark is the PI of a National Institute of Mental Health Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) which aims to use novel real-time assessment methods to capture associations between stigma-related stressors and suicidal ideation among LGBTQ+ young people. Dr. Clark completed a PhD in Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, a Master of Public Health at Yale University, and a BA in Psychology at the University of Virginia. Additionally, she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Yale LGBTQ Mental Health Initiative.
