Dr. Sierra Clark is an environmental epidemiologist and Lecturer in Population Health, evaluating how environmental pollutants and housing affect population health across diverse socio-economic contexts.
Her research centres on three main areas:
- Noise exposure assessment & health impacts: Conducting field-based monitoring studies and developing spatial exposure models to characterise environmental noise pollution. Her research investigates the impacts of noise on annoyance, sleep, cardiovascular health, and mortality through primary epidemiological studies and evidence reviews in the UK and internationally. Sierra previously led the development of the largest and longest-running noise monitoring network in a sub-Saharan African city and is supporting ongoing epidemiological studies of noise and child health in Accra, Ghana.
- Indoor air quality, housing & health: Investigating the health impacts of indoor air pollution, damp, mould, and housing quality throughout the life course, through a combination of primary data collection and the use of existing UK longitudinal health cohort datasets, with a focus on addressing health inequalities.
- Environmental burden of disease quantification & policy translation: Quantifying population disease burdens associated with environmental exposures at global, national, and local scales, translating epidemiological evidence into actionable insights to inform environmental health policy.
Sierra is currently Principal Investigator of the MASS-Home study, a co-investigator on the EPSRC-funded AirHub Network, and an elected committee member of the UK Indoor Environments Group (UKIEG). Drawing on her previous experience as an Environmental Public Health Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), she continues to work closely with government research partners as an Honorary Public Health Academic at UKHSA and through consultancy work with other government agencies.
Education
PhD, Imperial College London, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (2022)
MSc in Epidemiology, McGill University, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health (2018)
BA(Hons) in Geography, McGill University, Department of Geography (2015)
Scientific Committees
Elected committee member, UK Indoor Environments Group (UKIEG) 2023-2026
Working Group Member, Health Theme - NoiseNetwork+ 2025->
International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) Europe Chapter associate member 2022-2025
Funded projects and consultancy
PI, 'Uncovering the relationship of Mould in homes and Asthma Symptoms and Severity'. Funder: Rosetrees. 2026 (3 years)
Co-I, 'Airhub: Engineering Healthy Indoor Environments'. Funder: EPSRC funded micro network +. 2025 (2 years)
Co-I, 'Screening for carbon monoxide exposure in patients with headache in the Emergency Department (EDCO-H) study'. Funder: CO Research Trust. 2025 (2 years)
Deputy lead, 'Updating and Communicating the Burden of Disease from Transportation Noise in England'. Funder: UK Health Security Agency. 2025 (6 months)
PI, 'Mapping damp and mould risks for evidence-based policy making: A pilot approach in Newham Borough'. Funder: Research England Policy Engagement Award. 2025 (1 yr)
Co-lead, 'Transportation noise burden of disease modelling'. Consultancy for the UK Health Security Agency. 2024 (6 months)
Advisor, 'Improving national CO guidance to inform midwives and maternity staff (INFO CO-MID) project'. Funder: CO Research Trust. 2024 - 2026
Lead, 'Improving air quality, health, and the environment through household energy interventions in the Tibetan Plateau'. Funder: National Geographic Young Explorers Scheme. 2016 (4 months).
All publications can be viewed via ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sierra-Clark-2
Beyond her research, Dr. Clark plays an active role in education across undergraduate and postgraduate programs. She is an Advanced HE Fellow and serves as module lead for Evidence-Based Practice within the Physician Associate MSc program. Her teaching portfolio includes lecturing on environmental pollution and health across a range of medical and public health programmes and delivering lectures on population health and evidence-based practice within the MBBS program. She regularly supervises and assesses undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations in the Public Health, Global Health, and Biomedical Sciences programmes.