The life and career of Noreen M. Clark.

Abstract

2014 Noreen M. Clark’s career as practitioner and professor of health behavior and health education spanned many years in the field, and her extensive writings on management of chronic disease, self-regulation, physician care education, and translation and dissemination have greatly contributed to the shift in emphasis from medical solutions to self-management of chronic illness. Noreen often pointed out that over half of the population worldwide lives with at least one chronic disease, and that most everyone will be touched either directly or indirectly by the effects of a chronic illness. The financial and human costs of chronic disease are tremendous. Noreen also noted that Americans have a tendency to medicalize health-related problems, and to depend on physicians and drugs to solve them, even though in many instances this has not been an effective approach (Clark, 2009). Researchers and practitioners have made numerous calls for enhancing capacity to increase the critical role that individuals and their families play in the management of chronic disease, and the need for our health systems to educate and support individuals (and their families) to manage their disease on their own (Clark, 2009). Noreen clearly voiced the need to shift our focus to self-management programs if we want to have a major effect on improving quality of life, reducing unnecessary health care use, and cutting health care expenditures (Clark, 2009). In addition, Noreen’s influence extended beyond the United States and spanned other topics such as addressing social determinants of health through community and coalition approaches worldwide. This tribute issue contains eight selected publications written by Noreen and her colleagues over the 31-year period from 1982 to 2013 to represent some of the key areas of her work. The purpose of compiling this collection of her writings is both to honor her legacy and to bring attention to the influence of Noreen’s work on the field of public health and health care. We hope this compilation will make available to present and future generations of health educators the theoretical principles, self-management perspective, and focus on vulnerable populations that Noreen so strongly advocated and advanced. We recognize that one volume alone, however, cannot capture adequately the extensive reach she has had on the theory, research, and practice of health education.