Innovations
Innovation, at its most meaningful, is not about technology for its own sake. It is about recognizing a gap — in access, in representation, in possibility — and building something new to close it. Every project on this page began with that premise.
Whether convening a national virtual summit in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, creating comic book characters to make civic participation feel personal and joyful, or designing STEM career exploration experiences for young people who rarely see themselves in science — these innovations share a common root: the belief that community is both the starting point and the destination of any meaningful work.
Featured projects
Technology · Civic Engagement · 2005
Katrina: After the Storm
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Clark chaired, directed, and produced a three-day national virtual summit that used advanced cyberinfrastructure to connect communities, artists, humanists, and technologists across the country. At a moment when the storm had exposed deep fractures in who America protects and who it leaves behind, this summit created a distributed space for civic reckoning — long before virtual convenings were commonplace.
View the summit → View news article → Boston University summit article →
Creative Media · Civic Innovation · 2020
Meet the TurnUp Family
The TurnUp Family is a cast of original comic book characters created to make civic participation feel relevant, warm, and deeply personal for communities of color. What makes the family so powerful is their span of generations — from the grandparents, who carry the living memory of what it cost to win the right to vote, to the parents navigating today's world, to Trey, who cast his very first ballot in the 2020 elections, and young Tiffany, who is already watching, learning, and getting ready for her turn.
More than campaign mascots, the TurnUp Family became a creative framework for reaching voters across all 67 Florida counties — through music, an interactive app, giveaways, and storytelling that felt like home.
Meet the family →
STEM Education · Youth Engagement · Ongoing
Tiffany TurnUp Explores STEM Careers
Tiffany TurnUp — the youngest member of the beloved TurnUp Family — steps into a new role as a guide for young people exploring careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She grew up watching her grandparents vote with pride, cheering her brother Trey as he cast his first ballot in 2020, and learning from her family that showing up matters. Now Tiffany is showing up in a new arena — and taking young readers with her into the world of STEM.
Rooted in the same philosophy that has driven Dr. Clark's work for decades, this initiative uses culturally relevant storytelling to show Black and Brown youth that STEM belongs to them. Free handouts, webinar resources, and career exploration tools are available here.
Explore STEM careers →From a 2005 virtual summit to a 2020 multigenerational comic book voting campaign to ongoing STEM career resources — what connects these projects is a conviction that the tools of culture, creativity, and technology are most powerful when they are placed in the hands of communities that have historically been denied them. That is what innovation in service of community looks like.