Top of Mind: Jill Clark

She was the first co-chair of the Franklin County Local Food Council, a citizen’s grassroots group that seeks to expand, strengthen and maintain a resilient and local food system. She advised a master’s student, Caitlin Marquis, on a food policy audit with the council to comprehensively assess current policies while identifying gaps and opportunities for future activities. Clark then researched the audit, which contributed to a national Community & Agriculture Resilience Audit Tool that helps community stakeholders assess how they utilize the assets of their local food system to achieve a substantial level of community resilience.

“Jill has been instrumental in championing the local food policy landscape in Columbus and Franklin County. In fact, the 2012 food policy audit led to the commissioning of the food system planning process, which resulted in the adoption of the Columbus and Franklin County Local Food Action Plan,” said Karima Samadi, policy analyst in food systems at Columbus Public Health.  

Clark received the 2022 Excellence in Faculty Community Engagement Award from the national Engagement Scholarship Consortium in recognition of her leadership with the Franklin County Local Food Council. 

Beyond central Ohio, Clark provides statewide leadership as a steering committee member of the Ohio Food Policy Network and is an advisor to the UNESCO Chair on Food, Biodiversity and Sustainability Studies. She is a past president of the international Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society and was an advisor to the National Food Policy Network for food policy councils across the country from 2015 to 2022.

“The work of local and regional food policy councils is really to open up the agenda for local governments to say, ‘Hey, food is important to the people who live here,’” Clark said. 

With an academic background in natural resources, land resources and geography, her research focus is agrifood system policy and planning, centering on community and state governance of food systems and public engagement. Most recently, she studies the impacts of federal granting changes on food policy councils. She’s also working on an integrated research extension project to inform land access programming and policy support for small and midsize operations with young and beginning farmers and ranchers. 

The work brings her full circle from growing up in a family that emphasized caring for the environment and leaving things better than you found them. 

One of her first jobs out of college was with the Urban Ecosystem Awareness Team of AmeriCorps. 

“I worked on stream remediation with farmers all around central Ohio,” Clark said. “And I was so impressed with their commitment to the land and their commitment to the environment.” 

She went on to be Ohio director of the American Farmland Trust, where she worked for the passage of the Clean Ohio Fund legislation, which protects and connects Ohio’s natural and urban places by preserving open space and farmland, improving outdoor recreation through a network of parks and trails, and attracting investment and economic development. 

“The work at American Farmland Trust was really working with farmers and their neighbors and local governments trying to create environments where farming and the environment could thrive together,” Clark said. “The positives that I really took from that experience were the use of evidence in policymaking that we were drawing from university researchers.” 

She later worked as program manager of the Exurban Change Program and director of Ohio State’s then-Center for Farmland Policy Innovation. 

“My transition to academia was really that decisions are going to be made whether or not the academics are part of those conversations,” she said. “I found out I want to be in there when those decisions are made and bring good, good information.” 

What do you consider your greatest academic accomplishment? 

I would always start by saying that there’s no “my” accomplishments. No one’s doing any of this alone. 

If I had to pick one thing that’s top of my mind, it’s something that’s in my backyard as a scholar, as a researcher, as a teacher, as a neighbor, as a community member. We just celebrated 10 years of the Columbus and Franklin County Local Food Action Plan. This is showing that the food system is part of that commons, a shared resource essential to everybody’s wellbeing.
 

What goals do you have in your new appointment as associate dean for faculty and research?  

By virtue of all of what we do — whether we’re teaching in the classroom or outside the classroom, whether we are doing research, no matter who you are in the college — we’re all drawn to service in different ways. I am really excited about serving my colleagues. 

I envision it as a bridge between faculty and students and alumni because I’ve existed in different spaces. I understand and I can play a connector role by virtue of seeing what everybody does from a different perspective. I can think about this as creating the environments which enable people to really thrive in their work.

This ties into the broader public impact research and our land-grant mission. We as a college provide so much service to our state and to our communities that part of what I can be doing is helping to make sure that impact is known and understood and making those connections. 

In this role from the very beginning, I want to make sure I am excited whenever anybody else is excited about doing something good.
 

How would you describe your teaching style? 

My main objective is to cultivate and nurture critical thinking skills in an active learning environment that supports critical thinking. This includes developing trust among students and emphasizing the need to allow expression of viewpoints of course material in a nonthreatening way. 

Because I’m an engaged scholar, I’m always bringing practice to theory. If I’m teaching qualitative methods, it means we’re using class as a lab. If I’m teaching public participation, it means that we’re practicing the very techniques that we talked about in class. I also have a strong focus on mentoring students outside the classroom. 

Here’s a fun fact: Years and years ago, I stopped allowing computers in the classroom. 

And I stopped using slides. I stopped using the computer. And it has made the classroom a really intentional, deliberate communicative space because I have to really think about what I’m going to write on the board. 

And I tell students I do this because there’s very good research on the impact of unnecessary technology in the classroom. We will use technology if we have an exercise or something where we need to use it. Otherwise, we’re using the board. And so it means that we’re all hyper aware of what’s happening in the classroom. 

Do you have a funny or touching memory you could share about your time here in the college? 

Early on when I was an assistant professor, I was brand new and I felt like a fish out of water. When I had those feelings — and it’s something I still do today when I need a break — I’ll do laps around the building, and I usually stop in front of the big windows in Page Hall and stare out at the Oval. 

I was doing that in front of Sen. John Glenn’s office, and I turned around and he’s in there and he says, “Come on in.” He and his wife were in there and he asked me, “What’s your name? What are you working on? Tell me more.” And he didn’t do that just once. He did that multiple times. And he would remember things. He cared. That is emblematic of the Glenn College.

What do you enjoy most about your time at the Glenn College? 

There’s something really addictive about being around people who believe that you can join with others to make the world a better place. It’s exactly why I want to serve, because I think it’s an attitude and it’s a way of practice that is just so addictive in the best way. 

Read the latest edition of Public Address, the Glenn College magazine.