
Cynthia Clark PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN
professor, clinician, scholar, author, and Founder of Civility MattersTM
About Dr. Cynthia Clark , award-winning tenured professor, clinician, scholar, author, and Founder of Civility MattersTM.
Dr. Cynthia Clark is an award-winning tenured professor, clinician, scholar, author, and Founder of Civility MattersTM. Her pioneering work on fostering civility has brought national and international attention to the controversial issues of incivility in academic and practice environments. Her theory-driven interventions, empirical measurements, theoretical models, and reflective assessments provide best practices to prevent, measure, and address uncivil behavior and create healthy workplaces around the globe.
Dr. Clark’s current research includes preparing nurses to address incivility in the practice setting; bridging the education-practice gap to create positive work cultures; designing and testing empirical instruments to measure and address incivility; integrating civility, inclusivity, and professionalism into nursing curricula; and conducting intervention studies to measure the effectiveness of cognitive rehearsal as an evidence-based strategy to address incivility, build high-performing teams, and protect patient safety.
Dr. Clark is a prolific researcher, presenter, and author whose presentations number in the hundreds and whose publications have appeared in a broad range of peer-reviewed and open-access venues. Her empirical measures have been translated into 16 languages and used by scholars in more than 30 countries to measure incivility and to foster healthy workplaces. She is the recipient of numerous teaching, research, and service awards; including 3-time recipient of the Most Inspirational Professor Award, the NLN Excellence in Educational Research Award, the Journal of Nursing Education Christine Tanner Scholarly Writing Award, the Nurse Educator KT Heinrich writing award, the prestigious Elizabeth Russell Belford Award for Excellence in Education, awarded by Sigma Theta Tau International, and the John P. McGovern Lectureship award conferred by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Dr. Clark has been honored as a Distinguished Scholar and Lecturer at 12 universities. Her book, Creating and Sustaining Civility in Nursing Education,” received 1st place honors as the 2013 AJN Book of the Year; the 2nd edition is now available and a must read for all educators and health care professionals.