Claire Sterk

Claire E. Sterk, a Dutch scientist and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health at Emory University, became its 20th president on September 1, 2016, serving until August 2020. Before becoming president, she served as the sixth provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Emory, a position she had held since 2005. She first joined the faculty of Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health in 1995, where she served as the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health, the chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, and the associate dean for research. She also holds faculty positions in anthropology, sociology, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Emory University.

During Sterk’s tenure as Emory’s chief academic officer, she was the primary liaison between the administration, deans, and faculty on academic matters, overseeing academic policies and activities. Throughout her career, she has focused on faculty development and, in 2008, founded the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence to assist faculty at each phase of their careers. In addition to coordinating the President’s Advisory Committee, Sterk was responsible for tenure and promotion processes and faculty recruitment and retention. Her office also oversaw the Academic Leadership Program, the University Research Committee, the Conference Subvention Fund, the Emeritus College, and the Life of the Mind and the Luminaries speakers series, among others.

Sterk is an active lecturer both on and off campus and was the principal investigator of Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Her selection for Emory’s Great Teachers Lecture Series in 2000, as the Mary Anne Morgan Lecturer in Women’s Health in 2002, and as a Distinguished Faculty Lecturer in 2003, highlight her teaching recognition. As a leading figure in public health and anthropology, her primary research interests lie in addiction and mental health and HIV/AIDS, with a focus on gender, health disparities, and community-based interventions. Notably, she was the first to identify the risk of HIV infection due to unprotected sex among crack cocaine users.

Sterk has authored two books, "Fast Lives: Women Who Use Crack Cocaine" and "Tricking and Tripping: Prostitution in the Era of AIDS," and has written more than 100 articles and book chapters. Aside from her writing, Sterk also served on several editorial boards, was president of the Alcohol, Drug, and Tobacco section of the American Sociological Association, and was a board member of the Society for Applied Anthropology. She was a recipient of the Thomas F. Sellers Jr. M.D. Award for Support of Faculty Colleagues in Public Health in 1999, and was a Rosalynn Carter Fellow in Public Policy from 2003 to 2006.

Her academic accomplishments were recognized nationally as she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. Sterk's ability to speak four languages further accentuates her diverse skillset. A native of the Netherlands, she holds a PhD in sociology from Erasmus University in Rotterdam and a doctoral degree in medical anthropology from the University of Utrecht.