The American School Health Association (ASHA) recently awarded Jeffrey Clark, chairperson in the Department of Health Sciences at Illinois State University, the 2016 William A. Howe Award. The William A. Howe Award, ASHA’s highest honor, recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions and distinguished service in school health.
The award was established to honor Dr. William A. Howe, the founder and first president of the association. This award acknowledges the recipient’s outstanding professional contributions paralleling the aims and objectives of the association.
Clark earned degrees in school and college health education from Indiana University, Oregon State University, and Western Illinois University.
Clark began his career as a health educator at Dakota (Illinois) Community Schools where he was one of the initial recipients of the Metropolitan Life Foundation’s Health Me Award. He was a faculty member at the University of Louisville and Ball State University. He has received over $12 million in grants and awards and has directed the Hepatitis C Surveillance Project, the Alliance for Health Promotion, Smoke-Free Indiana, and Adolescent Health Through School-Based HIV/STD Prevention Education Project.
He provides leadership to the School Health Advisory Committee and the Illinois Health Sciences Learning Exchange Task Force for the Illinois State Board of Education and serves on the Board of Directors of the Central Illinois Health Education Center.
Clark is well-known in the field, publishing manuscripts and presenting numerous national and international papers on topics of evaluating school and community health education programs, sexuality education, and teacher preparation.
Clark is a past president and a fellow of the American School Health Association (ASHA) and received both the ASHA Distinguished Service Award and Presidential Citations. He has also received the Warren E. Schaller Presidential Citation, the National Honor Award, and the Distinguished Service Award from Eta Sigma Gamma, and was a distinguished fellow of the Research Consortium of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.
