Quick Facts
Biography
Claire Elizabeth Sterk is a Dutch scientist and President of Emory University. 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. She has also published more than 100 articles and book chapters. Sterk received a PhD in sociology from Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 1989 on her dissertation Living the life: prostitutes and their health and a doctoral degree in medical anthropology from the University of Utrecht.
She became President of Emory on September 1, 2016. Prior to that time, she had served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.