Chaplain Betty Clark

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Chaplain Betty Clark is an unsung hero of patient-centered care in Oakland, California. She is also a teacher, a matriarch, a great-grandmother, a church founder, and a fashionista.

Betty is driven in her work not only by her deep faith, but by her internal moral compass, which points to action over inaction, strength over passivity, and a commitment to connection and care. Growing up in Jim Crow Kentucky, she was the victim of a racist medical system. Hospitals did not accept African American patients, forcing them to rely only on occasional home visits from the two white doctors in town who were willing to treat them in between their other duties. Time and time again, Betty experienced the horror of medical neglect with dreadful and longstanding consequences for her and her family. Today, she is painfully aware of the ongoing harm and indifference towards people of color permeating the wards and clinics of our healthcare system. Racial healthcare inequity is not only unjust in Betty’s eyes—it’s personal.