John E. Clark is an assistant professor in the department of pharmacotherapeutics and clinical research and director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of South Florida (USF) Health Taneja College of Pharmacy in Tampa. He previously served as director of experiential education and pharmacy residency programs.
Clark is also a clinical pharmacist and faculty preceptor in ambulatory care at the USF Morsani Health Center Building Relationships and Initiatives Dedicated to Gaining Equality (BRIDGE) Healthcare Clinic. The BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic is a student-run, multidisciplinary, non-profit clinic that services uninsured and underinsured patients in the Tampa area. Clark oversees the development and provision of pharmacy services, including medication reconciliation, patient education and counseling, and disease and medication management services.
Before joining the faculty at USF, Clark held several roles at Jackson Memorial Hospital Department of Pharmacy in Miami, Florida, Grand Prairie Community Hospital in Grand Prairie, Texas, and Detroit General Hospital.
Clark is a vocal advocate for creating culturally competent systems of care as a means to address racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. In 1996, he organized a series of regional seminars on pharmacists' roles in the treatment and prevention of diabetes. For several years, he played a key role in the planning and implementing the Association of Black Health-System Pharmacists’ (ABHP) Minority Health Conference. The conference explored health literacy, medication adherence, use of health information technology, and medication management of conditions such as diabetes, renal disease, prostate cancer, and HIV/AIDS.
A past president of ABHP, Clark played an instrumental role in the organization's influence on minority healthcare issues, including creating the ABHP Research and Education Foundation. In 2005, Clark led an effort to increase collaboration between ABHP and ASHP on matters of mutual interest, including reducing health disparities and increasing ethnic and cultural diversity in the workplace. The partnership resulted in a series of educational sessions at ASHP’s Midyear Clinical Meeting and the development of the Joint Leadership Award.
Clark is an active member of ASHP and recently served on the ASHP Task Force on Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. His ASHP service also includes terms on the ASHP Fellow Review Committee, the Committee on Nominations, Council on Administrative Affairs, Commission on Therapeutics, the Section of Inpatient Care Practitioners Section Advisory Group on Pharmacy Practice Experience, and Florida delegate to the ASHP House of Delegates.
A widely published author and sought-after speaker, Clark’s recent research projects include a historical review of the contributions of African American women in pharmacy and an analysis of the ways early, and now defunct, African American pharmacy schools impacted health disparities.
Clark earned a B.S. in pharmacy from Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy and a Pharm.D. from Florida A&M University. He earned an M.S. in pharmaceutical administration from Wayne State University and completed his residency training at Detroit General Hospital.