Cynthia (Cindy) Clark, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN

Dr. Cynthia (Cindy) Clark is an award winning professor in the School of Nursing at Boise State University and the Founder of Civility Matters®. Her primary teaching responsibilities include teaching and coordinating the Nursing Leadership courses, teaching adolescent mental health content, and facilitating new student orientation and ongoing ‘civility’ content for nursing students and faculty. Dr. Clark holds two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in Nursing and the other in Addiction Treatment and Recovery. She is a psychiatric nurse/therapist specializing in adolescent violence prevention and addiction counseling. She has a Master of Science degree in Human Development and Family Studies, a post-Master’s certificate in Nursing Leadership, and an earned PhD in Educational Leadership.

Dr. Clark is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a fellow in the National League of Nursing (NLN) Academy of Nursing Education. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2012 Most Inspirational Professor Award, the 2011 Idaho Business Review Woman of the Year Award, the 2009 Idaho March of Dimes Nursing Excellence Award, and the 2011 NLN Excellence in Educational Research award where she was recognized for her ground-breaking work in fostering civility in the nursing community.

Dr. Clark’s pioneering work has opened essential conversations on a serious issue that often remains hidden and frequently ignored; she has brought national and international attention to the controversial issues of incivility and bullying in academic and practice environments. She has developed “best practices” and reliable empirical instruments to measure, prevent, and address uncivil behavior. Dr. Clark’s current research includes preparing future nurses to address incivility in the practice setting, bridging the gap between nursing education and practice-based nurses to create and sustain cultures of civility, faculty-to-faculty incivility, and ongoing intervention studies. She was the principal investigator on an international study examining academic incivility in nursing education in the People’s Republic of China. Her Incivility in Nursing Education (INE) Survey has been translated into 10 languages including Hebrew, Farsi, Indonesian, Filipino, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Arabic, French, Ganda, and Spanish. Studies using the INE have been conducted in Israel, Iran, Indonesia the Philippines, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia, Jordan, Canada, Uganda, and Ecuador.

Dr. Clark’s presentations number in the hundreds and her publications have appeared in several peer-reviewed journals including Nursing Outlook, Advances in Nursing Science, Journal of Nursing Education, Nurse Educator, Nursing Education Perspectives, the Journal of Theory Construction and Testing, the Journal of Cultural Diversity, the Journal of Nursing Administration, Clinical Simulation in Nursing, and Minority Nurse. Her book titled, Creating and Sustaining Civility in Nursing Education,” is available through Sigma Theta Tau International Publishers.

Dr. Clark spends her leisure time cardio kickboxing, hiking, biking, cooking, and reading. She especially enjoys spending time with her family and pets. For more information about Dr. Clark and fostering civility please visit her Civility Matters^® website at hs.boisestate.edu/civilitymatters/ and her Musing of the Great Blue blog site at http://musingofthegreatblue.blogspot.com/.