Debra E. Clark, Ph.D.

Biography

Debra E. Clark (formerly Blakely) is an associate professor of communication. She earned her doctoral degree from University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, (multi-media narrative analysis); her Master of Liberal Arts from the University of St. Thomas, Houston, (art history & cultural studies); and her Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies from Tennessee State University, Nashville (written to visual journalism & pre-med).

Previously she worked abroad developing sustainable markets and trade in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In the U.S., she maintained a career as a journalist and photographer for several magazines, newspapers, and journals. Her publications cover a vast array of subjects from architecture, business and medical features to scholarly publications about minority issues, communication, and the arts.

She served as an interoperability communications consultant to Major League Baseball regarding an all-hazards approach to responding to stadium and community incidents. She also served as an organ recovery coordinator in Texas and Mississippi, where she dealt with organ donation consent and medically managed patients up to the point of surgery. She was a certified instructor for both doctors and nurses. Dr. Clark has more recently been in numerous national and international photography exhibits and continues to write across numerous genres, including drama.

Dr. Clark teaches global issues in film, media writing (community reporting), IMC/PR case studies, and communication theory for the DMST graduate program. Her interdisciplinary approach remains a constant in all endeavors she undertakes—both professional and academic. She is also a faculty member for the undergrad Film Minor.

She is a post-graduate Fellow for the Council of Science Editors, and was inducted into Phi Beta Delta as an International Scholar.

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