Cynthia Clark, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN
Dr. Cynthia Clark is Founder of Civility Matters, Professor Emeritus at Boise State University and an award-winning professor, scholar, and author. As a nurse/therapist, she specialized in adolescent and family behavioral health, substance abuse recovery, and suicide and violence prevention. For two decades, Dr. Clark taught a variety of nursing courses in her role as a tenured university professor, most notably, leadership courses in nursing and healthcare. Her ground-breaking work on fostering civility and healthy work environments has brought national and international attention to the controversial issues of incivility in academic and work environments around the globe. Her theory-driven interventions, empirical measurements, theoretical models, and reflective assessments provide best practices to prevent, measure, and address uncivil behavior and to create healthy workplaces.
Dr. Clark is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the NLN Academy of Nursing Education, and a member of the 2025 American Nurses Association Professional Panel on preventing and addressing incivility and bullying in nursing. She is a prolific researcher, presenter, and author. Her presentations number in the hundreds and her publications have appeared in a broad range of peer-reviewed and open-access venues. She is the recipient of numerous teaching, research, and service awards. A sampling includes 3-time recipient of the Most Inspirational Professor Award, Inaugural National League for Nursing Marilyn H. Oermann Distinguished Researcher in Nursing Education, NLN Excellence in Educational Research Award, Journal of Nursing Education Christine Tanner Scholarly Writing Award, Nurse Educator Kathleen T. Heinrich Writing Award, Elizabeth Russell Belford Award for Excellence in Education presented by Sigma Theta Tau International, the John P. McGovern Lectureship award conferred by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and honored as a distinguished visiting scholar at 14 universities. She has been a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for Nursing for 30 years and has served in numerous service and leadership capacities. She blogged professionally for Sigma for 10 years and is a member of Sigma’s international global initiative to foster healthy work environments. Dr. Clark’s book, Core Competencies of Civility in Nursing & Healthcare is a must-read for all nurses and health care professionals. The first edition of her book, Creating and Sustaining Civility in Nursing Education, received 1st place honors as the 2013 AJN Book of the Year. The 3rd edition is now available an essential resource for all nurse educators, students, and academic leaders.
Dr. Clark’s current research includes preparing nurses to address incivility in academic and clinical settings; bridging the education-practice gap to create positive work cultures; designing and testing empirical instruments to measure incivility; integrating civility into nursing curricula; and conducting intervention studies to measure the effectiveness of cognitive rehearsal to address workplace incivility. Her assessments have been translated into 18 world languages and used to conduct studies in 33 countries on five continents. The Incivility in Nursing Education-Revised (INE-R) was used in a multi-site, international study led by Drs. Mohammed Baqer Al-Jobouri and Patience Samson-Akpan to examine academic incivility in 11 countries. Dr. Clark serves as a mentor, committee member, and content expert for several national and international graduate students; many have used her empirical instruments in doctoral dissertations, master’s theses, and other scholarly works.
Dr. Clark is highly acclaimed for her expertise in scholarly teaching and learner-centered pedagogies. She enjoys mentoring faculty in their growth as master educators and has conducted numerous classroom observations to assist faculty to improve pedagogical approaches. She was an inaugural Teaching Scholar and Mentor for Boise State University Faculty Learning Communities. Her publications and presentations have provided learners and educators with leading-edge, evidence-based, trauma-informed teaching strategies to inspire deep learning, improve learning outcomes, and foster student engagement.