{"id":5192,"date":"2016-07-12T15:16:02","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T22:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/?p=5192"},"modified":"2016-07-12T15:16:02","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T22:16:02","slug":"clark-kelton-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/2016\/07\/clark-kelton-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelton L. Clark (2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a \u201cFocus on Ecologists\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2009-2011.<\/em>
\n\"kclark\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Full Name<\/td>\nKelton L. Clark<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Degree<\/td>\nPhD<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Job Position<\/td>\nDirector<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Organization<\/td>\nMorgan State University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Department<\/td>\nEstuarine Research Center<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Professional Affiliation<\/td>\nAcademic<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Briefly describe your job path.<\/td>\nMy training is in estuarine community ecology. More specifically, I work on how marine communities are structured based on the response to variability, predator\u2013prey dynamics, and habitat availability, etc. structures communities. I taught Ecology at Morgan State University, was a Program Manager for the Smithsonian, and am currently the Director of Morgan State University\u2019s Estuarine Research Center in St. Leonard, MD.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Who or what inspired you to become a scientist (or other profession)?<\/td>\nMy Aunt Barbara tells me that as a small child I was interested in marine biology.I remember being absorbed in Jacques Cousteau and his adventures that I watched on T.V. However, it was 15 years after high school before I decided I wanted to become a Marine Biologist. I had very little information on what that entailed but my wife and I moved to San Diego because I knew that Scripps was a good school. Fortunately I met Susan Williams, who mentored me through my BS in Biology at San Diego State University.
\nAfter graduation I began an internship at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, Maryland and remained there as I went on to get a doctorate in Marine Ecology from the University of Maryland at College Park. At SERC, I met another mentor, Anson \u201cTuck\u201d Hines, who mentored me through graduate school and beyond\u2026As one of a handful of African Americans in the marine sciences, I feel strongly that minority students need avenues opened for them to find out about science careers.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
What is the most valuable advice a mentor gave you or that you would offer to someone who\u2019d like to do the same job as you?<\/td>\nI have said to students in the past I am a marine biologist so I can go outside and play. I have a PhD so that I can do what I want. For me it was a long road from the uncertainty of high school to becoming an intern at SERC, a marine biologist and eventually the director of Morgan State University\u2019s Estuarine Research Center. Along the way I came to believe in the power of mentoring.Surround yourself with positive role models, but take ownership of your own destiny.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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From a \u201cFocus on Ecologists\u201d maintained by the ESA Education Office about 2009-2011. Full Name Kelton L. Clark Degree PhD Job Position Director Organization Morgan State University Department Estuarine Research Center Professional Affiliation Academic Briefly describe your job path. My training is in estuarine community ecology. More specifically, I work on how marine communities are structured based on the response…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,155,165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biographies","category-ecologist-directory","category-personal-accounts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}