Claire Elizabeth Sterk is a Dutch scientist and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health at Emory University.[1] Sterk held faculty positions in anthropology, sociology, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Emory.[2] From 2016 to 2020 she served as president of Emory University.[3]
Sterk has been Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health at Emory since 2000. Sterk is a leading figure in both public health and anthropology studying addiction, mental health, and HIV/AIDS. She was the first person to identify the risk of HIV infection due to unprotected sex among crack cocaine users.
Sterk is the author of two books—Fast Lives: Women Who Use Crack Cocaine and Tricking and Tripping: Prostitution in the Era of AIDS.[5] She has since written another book.[6] She has also published more than 100 articles and book chapters.[6]
She became President of Emory on September 1, 2016.[2] Prior to that time, she had served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.[4] She held the position of president in the Alcohol, Drug, and Tobacco section of the American Sociological Association.[6] Sterk is the principal investigator of Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health, which is funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.[2]
In November 2019, Sterk announced that she would resign as Emory president at the end of the 2019–2020 school year and return to teaching in the Rollins School of Public Health.[7]
