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Community Recognition Award Presented to Katrina Clark, Executive Director of the Fair Haven Community Health Center and '71 MPH

Katrina Clark, '71 MPH and Executive Director of the Fair Haven Community Health Center (the Health Center), received EPH's Community Recognition Award at a reception held at the Health Center on December 10.

Katrina Clark, '71 MPH recipient of the 2004 Community Recognition Award, right, with Martha Dale, '80 MPH, the 2003 recipient. Clark is the Executive Director of the Fair Haven Community Health Center.

The Community Recognition Award was established in 1997 to thank community leaders for their contributions to the students and faculty of the Yale School of Public Health. It is presented each year to an individual from the community who has been instrumental in furthering the school's partnerships with programs and agencies in the city of New Haven.

“This award is very important because it acknowledges in a very tangible way that the community plays a vital role in many of the student practice opportunities and other projects that are undertaken by our School,” said Michael Merson, Anna M.R. Lauder Professor and then Dean of Public Health. “There are not many opportunities to make tangible the importance of the community to Yale University. This EPH Community Recognition Award… is such an opportunity because it honors specific individuals who have been important in advancing educational-community based partnerships.”

In presenting the award, Merson said that it recognizes “two aspects of Katrina's career which have been critical to us. The first is the active role she has played for over three decades as a mentor, advisor and preceptor to many of our master's students. Many, many students have had the opportunity to learn a great deal from her, about leadership, about service, whether they were serving as interns here at the Community Health Center, working with her on community projects, or listening to her lecture in class…. The second reason why this award recognizes Katrina is for the partnerships that she has forged with organizations serving the New Haven community, many of which have helped us in EPH implement new initiatives in the community.” Merson stressed that Clark has been a leader in creating such collaborations throughout Connecticut “to promote shared decision-making with the ultimate goal of providing primary care and preventive services to the under-served.” He said that Clark has brought “ideas and inspiration to collaborative efforts in primary care, housing, substance abuse, and environmental equity,” and has been “a spokesperson and a voice for those vulnerable populations which the Fair Haven Community Health Center serves.”

In accepting the award, Clark said that she has been able to serve in one place for over 30 years “because of this wonderful staff and this wonderful place.” She credited her parents with teaching her that “we need to give something back to this world.” The assassination of John F. Kennedy inspired Clark to join the Peace Corps, which led her down a path to a life of service in public health. She noted that the Yale School of Public Health gave her “incredible tools to be able to bring” to her role as a leader in public health in New Haven. She noted that New Haven “truly is a wonderful city… when you make some changes, you really feel as though you are making a difference.”

Under Clark's leadership, the Health Center has grown from a small, free clinic to a comprehensive community health center with a budget of nearly $8 million and a staff of 120. The Health Center serves approximately 12,000 patients in New Haven's Fair Haven neighborhood.

-Story by Marcie Foley.