Teresa Jo Clark passed away on May 20, 2015, at the age of 57 after a courageous battle with cancer

Teresa was born March 9th, 1958 to Brooks and Edith Faun Woodfin. Teresa grew up in Fort Worth, graduating from Paschal High School in 1976. Teresa was married to Bob, her loving husband of 37 years on July 14th, 1979. She received her Bachelor of Nursing degree in 1981 from the University of Texas at Arlington. After graduation she began her nursing career at Irving Community Hospital.

 

Teresa and Bob soon moved to Houston where Teresa served a two-year residency in adult care as a Certified Hematology/Oncology Nurse at Houston’s MD Anderson’s Cancer Research Center. After completing her residency, Teresa and Bob moved to Weatherford, Texas to raise their family. Courtney, Robert and Brian were the joy of Teresa’s life. Teresa continued her career for the next several years at Medical Plaza Hospital.

 

In 1991 she joined the hematology/oncology staff at Cook Children’s Stem Cell Transplant Unit where she focused on pediatrics. By 1993, as Director of Cook Children’s Cancer Center, she had become an integral part of the growth and expansion of that area, providing leadership and supervision for all inpatient and outpatient care within the hematology/oncology program. During that time, Teresa continued her education, receiving a Master of Science in Healthcare Administration degree from UTA. In the years following, she became the Assistant Vice President of Nursing, Vice President of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer. In May, Teresa received her Doctorate of Nurse Practice from Texas Tech University. She served as preceptor for administrative residents at Cook Children’s Medical Center for master’s level students from Regis University, Texas Christian University and the University of Texas at Arlington. Teresa was guest presenter at the 33rd Annual Conference of the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses on pediatric stem cell transplant.

 

In April of this year, Teresa was a recipient of the AFLAC Duckprints Award, honoring people who have positively impacted the fight against childhood cancer. Teresa was elected by her peers to the Dallas/Fort Worth Top 100 Nurses Association for the year 2015. Teresa was on the Board of Trustees for Community Hospice of Texas and participated in local, state, and national nursing executive organizations.

 

Memorials: In lieu of flowers please consider giving to the Teresa Clark Memorial Nursing Scholarship Fund at: https://www.cookchildrens.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/HTML/Giving/Forms/Donate-NursingMemorial.html.