Mary E. Clark is the Director of the Emergency Preparedness Bureau at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. In that role, she oversees state and local emergency preparedness and response for the Department. She is the principal investigator for both the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement grant through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Hospital Preparedness Program activities funded through the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).

Previously, Ms. Clark was the Regional Public Health Preparedness Manager at the Cambridge Public Health Department, coordinating public health emergency preparedness planning for Massachusetts Emergency Preparedness Region 4b, a coalition of 27 local health departments in the Metro Boston area. In 2007, Region 4b was recognized nationally for its work on development of local and regional response plans, public health workforce training, and exercises and drills.

Ms. Clark also served as Program Manager for the Cambridge Advanced Practice Center for Emergency Preparedness. One of only eight such centers nationwide, the Cambridge APC includes expertise in preparedness planning, political science, public health law, sociology, public policy, adult education, surveillance, epidemiology, and community-based research. Its work focuses on community and regional readiness for a public health emergency by developing, implementing, and evaluating innovative regional solutions to the preparedness problems facing local health authorities.

Ms. Clark has also served as an associate counsel for the Massachusetts Medical Society, and managed programs to improve access to health care at the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Community Research Initiative of New England, and JRI Health in Boston. She received her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health, and her law degree from New York University.