Clara McCurdy-Kirlis is a multilingual communications, training, and project management professional with over 15 years of experience in instructional design, project development, facilitation, and interdisciplinary collaboration across public health and education initiatives. Clara is an expert in the design and delivery of national webinars, peer learning, and communities of practice focused on prevention and behavioral health. For over 10 years, she has strengthened the behavioral health and substance misuse prevention workforce through training and technical assistance initiatives funded by SAMHSA.

Clara is a lead coordinator, instructional designer, and facilitator for the Strategic Prevention Technical Assistance Center and Northeast and Caribbean Prevention Technology Transfer Center. She supports prevention professionals, regional teams, and federal partners across all 10 HHS regions. Her work focuses on prevention science, behavioral health, strategic communications, technical assistance coordination, and adult learning design.

Recently, Clara designed and facilitated a four-part national webinar series exploring protective factors through a social-ecological lens and co-led multiple national technical assistance and peer-sharing initiatives focused on sustainability, youth engagement, coaching, and prevention systems development. Previously, as a member of EDC’s STEM Learning and Research Center team, she led communities of practice and co-authored publications on the future of work, including K–8 STEM Career Competencies.

Clara holds an MS in International Development from Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, Spain, and a BA in Anthropology and Spanish from the University of California, Irvine. She is fluent in Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and English.