About Us
Welcome to the Clark Lab! Our lab's overarching mission is to disentangle why lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people disproportionately experience severe, adverse mental health outcomes including suicide. We study risk and protective factors at the individual level (e.g., psychological reactions to stigma), interpersonal level (e.g., family and peer relationships), and structural level (e.g., public policy) to inform evidence-based, responsive approaches to prevention and intervention. Led by social and psychiatric epidemiologist Dr. Kirsty Clark, our quantitative, qualitative, and intervention research incorporates interdisciplinary methods from public health, epidemiology, health policy, and psychology. Located at Vanderbilt University in Middle Tennessee, we are committed to conducting community-engaged, culturally resonant research involving local LGBTQ+ communities and allies in the US Southeast.