Faculty Profile for Elizabeth June Clark

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Elizabeth Cernota Clark
(Beth Clark)

Beth Clark joined the Texas State journalism faculty in 2008, bringing to the classroom more than 30 years of experience as a reporter, editor, freelance writer and college professor. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and composition from Knox College (Galesburg, Ill., 1973) and a 2002 Master of Journalism degree from the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism at the University of North Texas.

Her teaching career began in Denton at UNT and Texas Woman’s University, where she taught in-class and online journalism courses while also advising The Lasso, TWU’s campus newspaper. She has taught in-class and online at Winston-Salem State University and was adviser to The News Argus campus newspaper. She has also taught English composition at Texas Lutheran University.

Clark began her journalism career at the Chicago Daily News and the Southtown (Chicago) Economist in the early 1970s, when journalism jobs were opening to more women and minorities, and dramatic changes were taking place within the newspaper industry. As computers began replacing typewriters in the newsroom, she adapted to technologies that ultimately transformed reporting, editing, photography and printing processes.

In the late 1970s and ‘80s she was a reporter/ editor for the Lewisville (Texas) News-Advertiser and the Denton Record-Chronicle. As a horticultural journalism specialist, Clark served seven years as editor of Neil Sperry’s Gardens magazine, a regional Texas publication; and as associate editor of Carolina Gardener magazine in Greensboro, N.C.

Her articles and photos have won regional and national awards from the Texas Nursing Home Association, The Associated Press, United Press International and Garden Writers Association. Clark’s freelance writing has been published in:
Newspapers: Christian Science Monitor, San Antonio Express-News, Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times Herald Magazines: Horticulture, Texas Gardener, Dallas-Fort Worth Home and Garden, Neil Sperry’s Gardens. Green industry trade publications, 2002-08: Hines Nurseries, Lowes Home Improvement, Target Stores, Conard-Pyle (Servistar Roses), Horticultural Printers Ltd. Online: philanthropyjournal.com, toro.com Book chapters:
• “San Antonio: Our Story of 150 Years in the Alamo City” (Witte Museum entry), published by San Antonio Express-News/Trinity University (2015).
•Encyclopedia of Gardens: History and Design (Chicago Botanic Garden, 2001), the gardens at Milotice, Czech Republic.
• “Growing Fruits and Vegetables Organically” (Rodale Press, 1994), three chapters.

At Texas State she served three years as director of Mass Comm Week and co-chaired an IRE data journalism workshop. She received a 2014 Award for Excellence in Online Teaching. In her time at Texas State, she presented her research at conferences of the American Copy Editors Society and the Garden Writers Association.

She is the 2019 recipient of the Bess Whitehead Scott Scribes Scholarship in support of her WWII research project about Lidice, Czech Republic. Texas State SJMC first supported this project in 2017, paving the way for travel to Czech Republic in October 2017 and June 2018, enabling Clark to research and document the continuing story of Lidice, a Roman Catholic village destroyed in 1942 on orders of Adolf Hitler.

During her travels, she interviewed three elderly survivors who were children at the time of the Lidice atrocity. One of those survivors, Marie Dolezalova Supikova, testified at the Nuremburg Trials in Berlin following WWII. Upon Supikova’s death in March 2021, Clark was instrumental in writing her obituary for The New York Times.

Clark is the author of “Lidice Lives” at https://lidicelives.wp.txstate.edu/, a blog produced in conjunction with a 2017 Non-Tenure Track Faculty Workload Release granted by the Texas State University Faculty Senate. Her personal essay, "Lidice, remembered" was published in the 2018 edition of Ten Spurs, the literary journal of the annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference sponsored by the Frank W. Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas.

During 2020 and 2021, Clark presented Zoom programs about Lidice to Rotary Club Prague-International and to Wimberley and San Marcos Rotary Clubs.

Clark is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, American Copy Editors Society, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Writers League of Texas, international Garden Writers Association, and Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences.

Teaching Interests

Editing, news writing/reporting, feature writing, editorial/opinion writing, journalism history, environmental/science journalism

Research Interests

--Editing/reporting issues related to word choice, bias & stereotypes
--Ethnic studies; in particular, Czech history, immigration, culture and legends
--Female trailblazers in Texas horticulture and other American horticultural regions
--Ecological restoration of native prairies across the U.S.