Jordan Clark

Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Geography, May 2023
Dissertation Title: Wet Bulb Globe Temperature: Identifying Relationships with Morbidity and Determining the Impact of Microclimatic Variability on Estimates and Forecasts PDF

M.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Geography, August 2019
Thesis Title: Measures of Heat Stress and Their Relationship with Mortality across North Carolina PDF

B.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Geography, May 2017
Specialization: Earth and Environmental Systems
Department of Geography

B.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Political Science, May 2017
Department of Political Science

Senior Policy Associate, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University, 02/2024-Present

Postdoctoral Associate, Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University, 02/2023-01/2024

• Core to the foundational ideation and conceptual framing for the creation of the Heat Policy Innovation Hub.

• Instrumental in the development of the framework, foundation, and targeted goals of the Heat Policy Innovation Hub, including multiple research grant proposals currently under review.

• Invited to speak at the inaugural FEMA Extreme Heat Summit, attended by the FEMA director and representatives from all FEMA regions, sharing practical, real-world tools for extreme heat preparedness to support national policy discussions.

• Fostered partnerships across local, state, and federal levels, notably co-leading a 'Lunch and Learn' session on extreme heat for FEMA Region 5 and sharing work at the NIHHIS national conference.

• Key contributor to nascent efforts to develop a robust statewide heat warning system for North Carolina, building off a successful pilot project in select counties in July 2023. This effort involves close collaboration with multiple state agencies, partners at other universities, and the US National Weather Service.

• Led a small team in creating a best-practices guidebook and strategic roadmap for data extraction tool development, emphasizing code quality, thorough documentation, and stakeholder feedback to ensure the tool's future effectiveness.

• Served as a subject matter expert on extreme heat and its broader implications, engaging with high-profile media outlets such as National Geographic, The Guardian, NPR, and WRAL.

• Provided expert input on the extreme heat sub-chapter of the 2023 Durham County Climate Health Assessment.

• Thought partner and collaborator in numerous conversations with researchers and professionals across Duke University and Duke Health to initiate interdisciplinary research and community-engagements related to extreme heat.

• Delivered technical training to under-resourced water utilities in North Carolina, equipping them with tools to digitize utility boundaries and fulfill EPA requirements on lead pipe inventories without the need for costly software.

• Developed tool to assist water utilities complete inventories of their lead service lines, including the data used by the tool (based on tax parcels, address data, and historical satellite imagery) and the user interface of the web application.

• Engaged with water utility stakeholders, traveling to workshops across North Carolina providing demonstrations of the lead service line inventory tool.

Chief Climatologist and Co-Founder , Klimo Insights LLC, 01/2022-Present

• Piloting a comprehensive Software as a Service (SaaS) platform designed to alert users of forecasted extreme heat conditions.

• Developed proprietary systems for climate data analysis, contributing to the company's intellectual property.

• Actively engaged with stakeholders and clients to understand their climate-related challenges and tailored applications of the solution.

• Founded company and established business plans, pricing and packaging options, and operational execution strategies.

Research Assistant, Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CISA), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 08/2017-Present

• Conducted field work (2018-2022) to quantify microscale variations in extreme heat using WBGT meters and a mobile weather station, focusing on high schools and suburban environments across North Carolina and Charleston, SC to inform future improvements to the WBGT forecast tool.

• Developed the first forecast tool in the United States for wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), a robust and comprehensive heat stress metric, leveraging numerical weather prediction models, which is now operational across the eastern 2/3rds of the U.S., and validated these forecasts through extensive fieldwork.

• Developed routine for forecasting WBGT based on numerical weather prediction models and NWS gridded products, specifically the NDFD and NBM (WBGT Forecast Tool).

• Spearheaded innovative statistical modeling to assess the impacts of extreme heat on morbidity and mortality in North Carolina, informing the development of future heat-health warning systems.

• Developed and streamlined modeling of heat-health relationships for use in the Heat-Health Vulnerability Tool (HHVT), which is a web application predicting the daily number of heat-related illness emergency department visits for counties across NC based on forecasted Heat Index by the NWS.

• Managed and optimized servers capable of handling terabytes of weather forecast model data, successfully navigating challenges around data volume and virtual hosting.

Graduate Research Consultant, American Studies 291: The Ethics of Climate Change, 01/2018-05/2018

• Lectured on introducing students to the science behind climate change and the impacts to society, including a focus on the impact of climate change on extreme heat.

• Assisted students in final projects focused on identifying the vulnerabilities of specific communities in North Carolina, with climate hazards including extreme heat, flooding, and drought.

Graduate Research Consultant, Environment and Ecology 201: Introduction to Environment and Society, 01/2019-05/2019

• Presented lecture on climate change impacts across a variety of sectors, including the current and future impacts of extreme heat on human health, agriculture, and water.

Weiss Urban Livability Doctoral Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017-2018. Link

REFEERED PUBLICATIONS

Clark, J., & Konrad, C. E. (2023). Observations and Estimates of Wet Bulb Globe Temperature in Varied Microclimates. . Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. doi:10.1175/JAMC-D-23-0078.1 PDF

Clark, J., & Konrad, C. E., & Grundstein, A. (2023). The Development and Accuracy Assessment of Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Forecasts. . Weather and Forecasting. doi:10.1175/WAF-D-23-0076.1 PDF

Clark, J., & Ward, A. (2023). Defining Extreme Heat as a Hazard: A Review of Current State Hazard Mitigation Plans. PDF

Clark, J. (2023). A Game Plan for Heat Stress: Policy Recommendations for High School Sports. PDF

Ward, A., Clark, J. , Konrad, C., Woodul, R., McLeod, J. Moser, H. (2019). The impact of chronic high-heat on reduced gestational age in pregnant women in North Carolina, 2011-2015 . International Journal of Biometeorology. 1-10. doi:10.1007/s00484-019-01773-3 PDF

NON-REFEERED PUBLICATIONS

Clark, J. (2019). CISA Engagement with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association: Heat Safety Working Group. Carolinas Climate Connection . PDF

Clark, J. , Konrad C. (2020). Accuracy Assessment of Experimental Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Forecasts Across North Carolina and the Continental United States . PDF

Evaluating and Predicting the Health Impacts of Extreme Heat in Present and Future Climate. Presented at the King’s College London – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Climate Workshop. February 20, 2018. London, United Kingdom.

The use of Different Measures of Heat Stress to Model Mortality in Urban vs. Rural Regions of North Carolina. Presented at the MPE 2013+ Workshop on Urban Environmental Sustainability in a Smart and Connected World. August 6, 2018. Athens, GA.

Comparing the Relationships Between Heat Stress Indices and Mortality in North Carolina. Presented at the 2018 Carolinas Climate Resilience Conference. October 30, 2018. Columbia, SC.

Identifying the Relationships Between Mortality and Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature across North Carolina. Presented at the North Carolina Public Health Association 2018 Fall Educational Conference. December 13, 2018. Charlotte, NC.

TJ12.2: Identifying the Relationships between Mortality and Heat Stress Indices across North Carolina. Presented at the 99th American Meteorological Society. January 8, 2019. Phoenix, AZ.

The Development and Validation of a Web-Based Tool to Forecast Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. April 8, 2020. Denver, CO. (Conference canceled due to COVID-19).

The Development and Validation of a Web-Based Tool to Forecast Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature. Presented at the Southern Appalachian Weather and Climate Workshop. March 26, 2022. Asheville, NC.

The Development and Validation of a Web-Based Tool to Forecast Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature. Presented at the 2021 Carolinas Climate Resilience Conference. May 10, 2021. Durham, NC.

Defining Extreme Heat as a Hazard: A Review of Current State Hazard Mitigation Plans. Presented at the NIHHIS National Conference. April 27, 2023.

Rising Temperatures, Rising Risks: Applications for Public Health Safety in Extreme Heat. Presented at the FEMA Extreme Heat Summit. May 10, 2023.

Abole, C. (2021, July 30). Charleston, MUSC participate in heat stress study to learn about the consequences of extreme heat. MUSC. Link

Blythe, A. (2023, August 26). As climate change makes excessive heat more routine, NC schools forced to weigh student, athlete safety. North Carolina Health News.

Henkel, C. (2023, July 31). Mitigating extreme heat - tips. Duke Health. https://corporate.dukehealth.org/news/mitigating-extreme-heat-tips

Lindsey, R. (2019, September 30). Extreme heat increases pregnant women's risk of pre-term delivery: NOAA Climate.gov.

Moody, K. (2023, August 22). Heat surge challenges student athletes. Mid Florida Newspapers.

Noor, D. (2023, September 6). “A harrowing summer”: Extreme weather costs hit us as 60m under heat alerts. The Guardian.

Stevens, N. (2023, July 30). Duke expert echoes NCHSAA heat policies as fall sports begin. MSN.

Talton, T. (2023, June 2). States greatly underestimate extreme heat hazards: Study. North Carolina Health News.

WRAL. (2023, August 1). Duke Heat Policy Innovation Hub offers game plan to Protect High School athletes. WRAL.com.

Programming and Software:

• Advanced: R, Python, ArcGIS, ENVI, SQL

• Intermediate: MATLAB, PHP, QGIS, HTML

• Development of public-facing apps, such as a WBGT calculator (https://wbgt.app/)

Statistical and Data Analysis:

• Multivariate, logistic, and Poisson regression

• Cox models and Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

• Time-series analysis and spatial statistics

• Experience with large datasets, including NetCDF and GRIB files.

Climate Modeling and Risk Assessment:

• Bias correction and downscaling methods

• Climate risk assessment and vulnerability studies

Remote Sensing and GIS:

• Image analysis and geospatial data manipulation

• Geocoding, MXD creation, and spatial analysis

Systems and Server Management:

• Linux/Bash scripting for command-line operations

• Deployment and maintenance of web servers and databases, notably on Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Data storage optimization and architecture