Roots & Remedies 2021
Welcome
Carla Sparks is a Rural Outreach Coordinator for the Child Advocacy and Public Health Division of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, AR. Via her 15 year tenure at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, she served as a the Director, Patient Centered Initiatives and Community Engagement, Center for Health Literacy, and Community Liaison and Health Policy and Management Department adjunct faculty member at the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. Ms. Sparks worked in the public sector for (7) years as Director of Training Community Organizations for Change a nonprofit capacity building organization, Development Director for Second Genesis Project, and an organization development consultant. In her continuing role as an organization development consultant, Ms. Sparks has had the opportunity to work with numerous community-based, governmental, and philanthropic organizations dealing with nonprofit capacity building, community development, and public health.
Prior to work in the public sector, she worked for 13 years in the private/corporate sector primarily in human resources and organization development. Ms. Sparks received her BS in Mathematics from Philander Smith College of Little Rock, AR and her Master of Public Health (MPH) from the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock Arkansas. Ms. Sparks has served on a campus-wide task force focused on reducing racial and ethnic health disparities, and a campus-wide inter-professional health education team including the establishment of student-run free health and wellness center in an underserved community, supported by a community-based advisory board. Ms. Sparks has also served as a leader and member of the Boards of several different nonprofit/community-based organizations such as Better Community Development, the Arkansas Literacy Council, and University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, Center for Community Philanthropy Advisory Board.