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Jill Clark

Professor

Biography

Dr. Jill Clark’s research is agrifood system policy and practice, centering on community and state governance of food systems, the policy process and community engagement. Primarily using a community-based research approach, she works with local communities across the United States. Current funded research focuses on food democracy, opportunities for connecting food security and agricultural economic development through local policy initiatives, healthy food access, and policy to support the growth of small and mid-size farms engaged in the food system.

Currently, Clark provides statewide leadership for the Ohio Network of Food Policy Councils, national leadership as an advisory board member for Johns Hopkins Food Policy Network, and international leadership as a member of the international advisory committee for the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at Wilfrid Laurier University. Locally, she is a member of the executive committee of the Franklin County Local Food Council.

Before joining the faculty, Clark directed the Center for Farmland Policy Innovation at Ohio State from its opening in 2006 until her departure in 2012. Before coming to Ohio State, she directed the Ohio office of American Farmland Trust, a national nonprofit.
 

Clark has a doctorate in geography from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

 

Neighbors’ Perceptions of University Engaged “Research”
Journal of Planning Education and Research
October 08, 2024

This study is one of the first to ask community members about their perceptions of university research.

The potential of urban food governance to transform lives, cities, and the planet
Global Food Security
March 01, 2024

Jill Clark and colleagues propose five interconnected principles to impact urban food governance thinking and practice and argue that attending to these five principles can support the capacity and expansion of transformative urban food governance.

Perspectives of community members on community-based participatory research: A systematic literature review
Journal on Urban Affairs
February 07, 2024

Jill Clark and colleagues study interest in community-based participatory research by universities and funders by analyzing peer-reviewed scholarship on CBPR.

Managing across boundaries for coordinated local and regional food system policy
Food Policy
October 21, 2022

Jill Clark evaluates the extent to which Know Your Farmer Know Your Food changed the way the USDA implements local and regional food systems policy. 

Planning toward sustainable food systems - An exploratory assessment of local U.S. food system plans
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
September 02, 2022

Published by Jill Clark, this assessment of government-adopted food system plans in the U.S. examines which topics, across the three dimensions of sustainability (social, environmental, and economic), are included in local food system plans and conducts an exploratory analysis that asks whether the community capitals (built, cultural, social, financial, human, and natural) available in a community are associated with the content of food system plans.

Food systems governance should be preceded by food systems diplomacy
Nature Food
September 01, 2022

Jill Clark studies how international actors consider and engage with negotiations that influence the food system and how they can reframe the global food governance narrative.

Food System Dynamics Structuring Nutrition Equity in Racialized Urban Neighborhoods
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
April 01, 2022

Jill Clark identifies nutrition equity as an overarching goal for local food systems, which reflects a state of having freedom, agency, and dignity in food traditions resulting in people and communities healthy in body, mind, and spirit. It is a transformative goal designed to spur system-level interventions that further racial equity through improved local food system dynamics.

Equitable deliberative participation design: A call to use a lens of multidimensional power
Perspectives on Public Management and Governance
March 31, 2022

Professor Jill Clark examines the use of multidimensional power to promote social justice and equity.

Emergencies, Disasters and Ohio’s Food System
January 26, 2022

This study, helps to visualize and understand how Ohio state government agencies, civil society, nonprofits and the private sector intersect with the food system to respond to disasters in Ohio.

Preparing for Food System Resiliency in Ohio Policy and Planning Lessons from COVID-19
January 01, 2022

Jill Clark and Aiden Irish aim to inform state emergency management responses in order to better prepare for and mitigate medium- and long-term negative social and economic impacts resulting from future disasters and disruptions.

Public Values and Public Participation: A Case of Collaborative Governance of a Planning Process
American Review of Public Administration
September 10, 2021

Jill Clark empirically illustrates the connection between public value frames, design choices, and public participation in a collaborative policymaking process.

The Power to Convene: Making Sense of the Power of Food Movement Organizations in Governance Processes in the Global North
Agriculture and Human Values
August 31, 2021

Professor Jill Clark uses the concept of relational fields to conduct a post-hoc analysis of nine cases, examining how social movement organizations and other actors actively create new deliberative governance spaces. 

Fixes that Fail: A system archetype for examining racialized structures within the food system
American Journal of Community Psycholog
August 01, 2021

Professor Jill Clark provides a narrative interpretive tool for unveiling complexity within the food system and interdependencies with racialized systems such as criminal justice and labor market.

Beyond backyard chickens: A framework for understanding municipal urban agriculture policies in the United States
Food Policy
August 01, 2021

Professor Jill Clark develops a framework to understand the landscape of municipal urban agriculture policy, focusing on authority, policy instruments, and topic areas.

Essential, Fragile, and Invisible Community Food Infrastructure: The Role of Urban governments in the United States
Food Policy
August 01, 2021

Professor Jill Clark examines the role of subnational governments in community food infrastructures.

 

 

A relational approach to evaluate food environments finds that the proximate food environment matters for those who use it
Health & Place
May 01, 2021

Professor Jill Clark investigates whether shopping close to home moderates the relationship between the proximate food environment and diet.

Small Improvements in an Urban Food Environment Resulted in No Changes in Diet Among Residents
Journal of Community Health
February 01, 2021

Professor Jill Clark examined a U.S. Healthy Food Financing Initiative funded food hub that was designed to be implemented by a community development corporation in an urban neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio.

A contemporary concept of the value(s)-added food and agriculture sector and rural development
Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society
December 15, 2020

Professor Jill Clark examines values-added food, agriculture and rural development. 

Emergency Food Provision for Children and Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examples from Five U.S. Cities
Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy
September 24, 2020

Professor Jill Clark uses qualitative data to provide insight into emergency food provision developed in five cities to serve children and families. 

Finding Our Way to Food Democracy: Lessons from US Food Policy Council Governance
Politics and Governance
October 28, 2019

Professor Jill Clark examines the relationship between a Food Policy Council's organizational structure, relationship to government, and membership and its policy priorities.

Designing Public Participation: Managing Problem Settings and Social Equity
Public Administration Review
November 02, 2017

Professor Jill Clark provides a theoretical framework that links public managers' and community leaders' perspectives on their own political efficacy and sources of their efficacy, yielding four types of “designers.” 

Dietary Intake Contributions of Food and Beverages by Source and Food Security Status in US Adults
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
September 01, 2017

Professors Jill Clark and Neal Hooker compare the consumption patterns and diet quality of foods and beverages obtained from various sources by food security status.

Local Capitalism and Civic Engagement: The Potential of Locally Facing Firms
Public Administration Review
June 09, 2017

Jill Clark demonstrates that locally-facing firms are associated with greater levels of civic and political engagement compared with locally owned firms that sell their products to customers elsewhere.

Scaling-Up Regional Fruit and Vegetable Distribution: Potential for Adaptive Change in the Food System
Agriculture and Human Values
June 01, 2016

Professor Jill Clark describe current distribution systems within Ohio, identifies firms interested in scaling-up distribution and inform state-level policy efforts by identifying opportunities to better target any state-level policy and program efforts.

The Agrifood System Policy Agenda and Research Domain
Journal of Rural Studies
October 24, 2015

Professor Jill Clark evaluates the emergence of agrifood system policy in the U.S. and suggests future evaluative policy research and comparative analysis with other domains of food policy research.

Office

310C Page Hall

Expertise

Public Participation; Social Equity; Food Policy and Governance; Engaged Research