Lauren Clark, RN, PhD

As a nurse-anthropologist, Dr. Clark draws on her background as a public and community health nurse to inform her research. Her research interests have evolved over time, with a general emphasis on cultural aspects of quality of life in daily life among diverse and marginalized populations. Using participatory research methods, she partners with people with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) to understand their health-related quality of life goals. Her commitment to disability self-advocacy resulted in a psychometrically-sound, 16-item HRQOL measure specifically designed for self-report among people with IDD. The HRQOL-IDD has been translated into German, French, and Chinese, and is available free-of-charge to clinicians and researchers at www.HRQOLIDD.com. The measure is used by Special Olympics in the Healthy Athletes program to holistically assess athletes’ health. Research with expectant parents of children with developmental disabilities resulted in a suite of video resources to help parents through the early months of sense-making after diagnosis. In teaching undergraduate and graduate students in nursing and disability studies, she emphasizes the pivotal role of nurses in humanizing care and supporting self-advocacy of people with disability.