Portrait of Dr. Kelly Lynn Clary

Dr. Kelly Lynn Clary

  • Associate Professor at School of Social Work, College of Applied Arts

Biography

Dr. Kelly Clary joined Texas State University in September 2020. She holds all three degrees from the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I-L-L!

Dr. Clary has clinical experience with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Counseling Center's Alcohol and Other Drug Office Team, and at numerous community agencies including the Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center, an Outpatient Substance Use Facility, Carle Emergency Department, and a Universal Health Services Inpatient Psychiatric Hospital.

Dr. Clary has worked on numerous research projects funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Protective Services, Illinois Department of Human Services, and National Institutes of Health throughout her research program.

Research Interests

Dr. Clary's research agenda includes exploring and documenting developmental and cultural factors/causes and consequences related to high-risk health behaviors, particularly substance use among placed at-risk populations (e.g., military/veterans, emerging adults, college students, and LGBTQIA persons). Further, she hopes to develop, implement, and evaluate culturally informed measures and interventions to reduce health disparities (e.g., substance use, mental health, suicide). Dr. Clary was selected among 20 scholars as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Health Equity Research (CHER) Fellow for Summer 2021. She participated in a 6-day research-intensive training to enhance the readiness of early-career faculty at minority-serving institutions to conduct community-based, social, and health behavior research.

Research Interests: Substance Use/Misuse; Mental Health; Emerging Adults; Military/Veterans; Qualitative Methods

Dr. Clary's current funded projects include a research study in Illinois examining benzodiazepine, opioid, and cannabis use among older U.S. veterans, a project exploring psychophysiological and perceived health-related behaviors during and after gender-affirming and non-affirming language among transgender people who live in Texas, and a study exploring the Social Work Grand Challenge of Technology among Texas State University social work field educators.

Teaching Interests

Since 2016, Dr. Clary has taught close to 1,000 students at Texas State University, Illinois State University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has taught Direct Social Work Practice, Research Methods, Diversity Identities and Issues, Brief Interventions (Motivational Interviewing and SBIRT; Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment), Harm Reduction and Peer Facilitation, and Alcohol and Chemical Dependency.

Dr. Clary is also interested in conducting research to improve teaching instruction/methods to further integrate technology-based activities, such as using simulation-based learning (SBL) to promote cultural humility and competence.