Challenge. Change.

Many people use life expectancy as the key metric for measuring global health. Ellen Foley and Tsitsi Masvawure know global health is much more nuanced and complicated. The two are co-editors of the new book “The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and Global Health,” which reframes global health and asks how partnerships can become more equitable.

Foley is a professor in Clark’s Department of Sustainability and Social Justice. Masvawure is a professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Both are medical anthropologists who study health in Africa and HIV. Their book explores the complex relationship between anthropology and global health. Throughout the volume, scholars from around the world examine topics including rare diseases, HIV, health security, indigenous communities, decolonizing global health, and more.

“There's been a huge movement to decolonize global health,” says Foley. “It should not be about wealthy Western or Northern countries coming to help and bringing money and expertise.

“Why should a researcher from Clark or WPI apply for a grant to get millions of dollars to go research in Senegal without somebody from Senegal sitting on the panel, evaluating the quality of that project,” Foley continues. “I think all the stakeholders should be at the table at every stage. The most involved folks should be weighing in on those decisions, which is not how global health has worked in the past.”

Masvawure notes that while many funding agencies think of health as levels of disease, global health includes upstream and downstream factors. This includes addressing factors like housing insecurity and food access to reduce levels of diabetes, for example.

“If we think of global health as the state of health in the world — all of us together — that should allow movement to take place in any direction,” she says. “If malaria is emerging in the U. S., for example, then let's connect with those countries that have been dealing with malaria forever to help shape the American response. That's one way we can start to make those partnerships equitable.”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Haley Wilder ’18 is on part two of her Clark journey. After receiving her sociology degree, Wilder worked as a litigation paralegal at the firm Fletcher Tilton and as a faculty support specialist at Harvard Business School. That path steered her back to Clark. Today, Wilder is the University's director of board operations.

“I can look out my office window and see that the work that I'm doing is affecting the students walking on the green,” she says. “There's a direct impact.”

Wilder is also an assistant coach of the women’s basketball team and is pursuing a master’s in sports and esports administration. On this episode of Challenge. Change., Wilder discusses her passions for law and basketball and how working at her alma mater has shifted her perspective.

“I always say that I didn't choose Clark, Clark chose me,” she says. “It just felt like where I should be.”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

John Magee, a computer science professor and Clark’s interim provost and vice president of academic affairs, is interested in learning how systems can improve people’s lives.

“The neat thing about computer science is it's all about helping people solve problems or do things,” he says. “Sometimes those problems are in computing, but very often they're problems that face scientists in other fields.”

Magee works with user interface technologies that allow people with disabilities to communicate and participate in the world. This passion started when he was an undergraduate student assisting on a project that helps people use a computer mouse without the use of their hands. Instead of pointing and clicking with their finger, Magee can coordinate computer systems so that blinking, for example, controls a computer mouse click.

“That was the moment where I first really saw the human side of computing and the difference that it can make for people,” he says.

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Andrew Vietze ’91 took a leap of faith.

As an editor for Down East Magazine, he’d written extensively about Baxter State Park in Maine, chronicling rescues and the feat of climbing Mount Katahdin. After a while, Vietze couldn’t ignore his desires anymore. He wanted to do more than just write about Baxter, he wanted to become a part of it.

“It was terrifying, frankly, to walk away from a cushy job that was desired by lots of people not knowing how I would fare,” said Vietze, who majored in English and history at Clark. “I knew that I couldn't sit at a desk anymore and look out the window and live a 7-to-6 workday every day. I knew I wanted to be master of my own destiny.”

For the past 20 years, Vietze has worked as a park ranger in Baxter. He is the author of “This Wild Land: Two Decades of Adventure as a Park Ranger in the Shadow of Katahdin,” which chronicles his life and work as a ranger — from search-and-rescue missions to trail maintenance to cleaning toilets. His other titles include “White Pine,” “Becoming Teddy Roosevelt,” and “Boon Island.”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

A few months after Benjamin Korstvedt ’87 graduated from Clark, he bought a handful of 99-cent records. Among them was a recording of Austrian composer Anton Bruckner’s second symphony. Korstvedt was hooked and still is decades later.

Korstvedt, now the George N. and Selma U. Jeppson Professor of Music at Clark, and fellow scholars are celebrating “Bruckner Year,” the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth, with global festivals, conferences, and performances recognizing the enduring impact of Bruckner’s music.

“His music was most successful during his lifetime with the younger generation. At their finest — and there are some very great moments in these pieces — they achieve what I think is best described as a level of the sublime. The sense of striving for something really profound and something beyond the norm, emotionally and spiritually,” says Korstvedt.

The professor’s forthcoming book, “Bruckner’s Fourth: The Biography of a Symphony,” will be published in October by Oxford University Press.

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Owen Chase ’26 discovered microgreens after starting college, in search of a crop he could grow easily year-round. Now, they’re the centerpiece of his business, Just For Fun Farms.

Chase, a global environmental studies major, sells his greens at the Clark Collective pop-up markets during the academic year. Over the summer, he set up shop at the Worcester Regional Environmental Council farmers markets at Beaver Brook and University Park to reach new clients.

Participating in Clark Tank, the University’s Shark Tank-style competition, has been instrumental to Chase’s success.

“I learned so much about what a business needs to do to grow,” he says. “It was great to get into the mindset of an entrepreneur and win some funding.”

For Chase, growing microgreens is fun — as his farm’s name suggests — but it’s also an opportunity to tap into his passion for food justice. There’s a philanthropic component to his business, with frequent donations to local food pantries.

“People are always concentrated on what we can do to save the world. Is it recycling? Is it picking up trash? I do all these things, but I'm also really good at growing food locally and sustainably. So, I make that my focus,” Chase says. “It's good for the environment to have locally produced food, and it's good for people. Why not grow food and help give back?”

Challenge. Change. is produced by Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

“Challenge. Change. Presents: Project Squid” is a podcast miniseries that dives deep into what it takes to make a video game as a college student.

In this episode, the team reflects on the game-making process after a year of Game Studio.

Challenge. Change. Presents: Project Squid is produced by Brenna Moore ’24, MSC ’25, and Ed Greig ’23, MFA ’24, for Clark University. Find episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

“Challenge. Change. Presents: Project Squid” is a podcast miniseries that dives deep into what it takes to make a video game as a college student.

Listen as the team preps for the massive PAX East gaming convention and prepares to launch their game to the public.

Challenge. Change. Presents: Project Squid is produced by Brenna Moore ’24, MSC ’25, and Ed Greig ’23, MFA ’24, for Clark University. Find episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

“Challenge. Change. Presents: Project Squid” is a podcast miniseries that dives deep into what it takes to make a video game as a college student.

Making a game gets messy. In this episode, hear how the team decided to pivot halfway through the project.

Challenge. Change. Presents: Project Squid is produced by Brenna Moore ’24, MSC ’25, and Ed Greig ’23, MFA ’24, for Clark University. Find episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.

“Challenge. Change. Presents: Project Squid” is a podcast miniseries that dives deep into what it takes to make a video game as a college student.

What is Game Studio? Dive into the Becker School of Design & Technology at Clark and learn how students create games together.

Challenge. Change. Presents: Project Squid is produced by Brenna Moore ’24, MSC ’25, and Ed Greig ’23, MFA ’24, for Clark University. Find episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.