Shelby Clark
Assistant Professor
Areas of Expertise
- SW 711 Trauma Informed Care
- SW 385 Social Justice Foundations
- SW 521 Poverty, Inequality, and Injustice
- SW781 Human Behavior and Change Theories in Social Work Practice
Highlighted Publications
- Clark, S.L., Miller, B., Akin, B.A., Byers, K., Wright, K., Carr, K., & Hunt, M.K. (2024). Exploring the relationships between self-care and well-being outcomes among child welfare professionals. Journal of Public Child Welfare.
- Clark, S.L., Riley, E.N., Lardner, M., Theile, K., Edge, L., Pearson, T., & Cull., M.J. (2025). Team culture and secondary traumatic stress in child welfare professionals. Children and Family Social Work.
- Clark, S.L., Pope, N.D., Dowdy-Hazlett, T., Barney, R., Theile, K., Mathis, C., Latimer, A., Rogers, C., Kinzie, S., & Mitchell, J. (2025). “Do no harm can get a little muddy”: Social workers’ experiences with moral distress. The Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research.
Student & Research Availability
- Accepting Students in Programs: Bachelors | Doctoral | Masters
- Available Student Positions: Honors Thesis | Independent Study | Other Opportunities | Practicum
- Research or Interest Area Key Words: 1. Trauma-informed care 2. Secondary trauma, burnout, and compassion fatigue 3. Resilience 4. Self-care 5. Contemplative and wellbeing interventions 6. Human service organizations, administration, and workforce
Alma Mater
University of Kansas (PhD); University of Missouri-Kansas City (MSW); Brigham Young University-Idaho (BSW)
Get to Know Shelby
Shelby L. Clark, PhD, LCSW, LSCSW is a dedicated scholar-practitioner committed to advancing the well-being of helping professionals and the communities they serve. Drawing on extensive clinical experience in child welfare and mental health, her work bridges research and practice to promote trauma-responsive, resilience-oriented care across human service systems.
Dr. Clark’s research examines how well-being is shaped across individual, organizational, and systemic levels. Her scholarship focuses on practices that address traumatic stress and burnout while fostering self-care, resilience, and compassionate human service delivery. Her work on self-care has received national recognition and continues to inform innovative, evidence-based approaches to strengthening well-being and resilience among helping professionals.
Her research has been supported by more than $10 million in awarded funding, including projects funded by the Florida Institute for Child Welfare, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and the University of Kentucky’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science. As principal investigator, she has led funded studies advancing child welfare service delivery innovation.
Through collaborative, interdisciplinary partnerships, Dr. Clark seeks to strengthen helping professionals and cultivate thriving human service organizations. Her work reflects a broader commitment to well-being and healing in everyday life, recognizing that experiences of stress, trauma, and the need for self-care, resilience, and support are shared across individuals, families, and communities. She is guided by the understanding that when systems and relationships are designed to nurture healing and sustainability, they create the conditions for people and communities to thrive.
Substack: The Caring Corner
https://thecaringcorner.substack.com/p/in-my-own-little-corner?r=3c7krm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true