Close Up
Clark continues family tradition
Coming from a long line of ministers, Vincent Clark was inspired to serve. Photo: DOUGLAS LEVERE
Developing the role of director of community relations for UB seems a natural for Vincent Clark. He has been involved with service to the community since sweeping the streets as part of neighborhood cleanup efforts when he was a youngster growing up on the east side of Buffalo.
Coming from a long line of ministers—all of whom were connected to public service in some fashion—Clark was inspired to serve. His pastor father grew up during the civil rights movement and spent much of his life as a community organizer, establishing several nonprofit organizations, believing in the American political process as a way to stimulate social change and instilling a help-thy-neighbor philosophy.
“My father and mother always expressed to us that no matter how little we had, there are folks who have less, and that the world ought to be a better place because you’re in it,” says Clark. “That community service has always been paramount throughout my childhood and carries over to my career.”
Clark’s commitment to service is exhibited through his years of community organizing and volunteer work, including volunteer service on numerous boards, committees and task forces, both locally and nationally.
A seminal moment for Clark occurred when he became the first African American to be elected president of the Undergraduate Student Association at Canisius College in his senior year. That deepened experiences and opened doors for him, and got him a job upon graduation in Rep. Jack Quinn’s office. The popular congressman’s emphasis on constituent service reinforced Clark’s dedication to service and gave him a deeper perspective of Western New York.
After more than seven years as a senior aide to Quinn, Clark subsequently entered higher education as director of government, corporate and foundation relations at Medaille College. Then, as part of President John B. Simpson’s Community Engagement Task Force, the Office of Community Relations was created at UB in fall 2006. Clark was named its first director.
Since then, he has forged deeper relationships with the neighborhoods surrounding the campuses through communication—the UB Neighbor newsletter has a circulation of 16,000 homes around the South Campus with a Downtown Campus edition planned to begin this summer. Clark’s office has helped develop business, residential and social programs, events and relationships.
“There’s a common bond between the work that I perform here at UB and what I did at Medaille and with the congressman’s office, and that’s people,” he states. “My job across the board has been to establish, nurture and leverage relationships with folks that are hopefully mutually beneficial. But at the end of the day, it’s about people.”
While strengthening relationships with surrounding campus communities is a priority, Clark is quick to acknowledge the big community picture. “We have equal responsibility to ensure the broader impact of the university and the engagement that comes along with it.”
In accordance with UB 2020 as this region’s main economic development priority, the Office of Community Relations is charged with ensuring access to the full economic promise of the plan, he says, in terms of workforce development, civic community, business and education (helping area K-12 students prepare for college through its association with UB’s new Center for Educational Collaboration).
“I think we’re at a critical point right now where the definition of or the understanding of the university’s role in the community is evolving,” he says.
Clark and his family are also constituents of the university community, residing in the South Campus neighborhoods for nearly 11 years. His wife, Ava, is a nurse at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Their children are Whitni, 19; Bailey, 9; McKenzie, 7; and Camryn, 3.
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