HJBR Sep/Oct 2021

DIALOGUE 8 SEP / OCT 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   ONE ON ONE with William“Beau” Clark, MD East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner William “Beau” Clark, MD, is a native of Baton Rouge and graduated from St. Michael the Archangel High School. He graduated from Louisiana Tech University, where he received a Bachelor of Science. He then graduated from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans and completed a residency in emergency medicine in Baton Rouge. He is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. “In the fall of 2011, I was recruited to run for East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner by local law enforcement leaders. For the previous decade, I had been volunteering my time as the SWAT team physician for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Louisiana State Police. These law enforcement professionals recognized my drive for public service and my compassion as a physician. They felt that I would be ideal to be the Coroner of East Baton Rouge Parish. I decided to run and was elected. That is truly when the hard work began. I was faced with an underfunded and inefficient government agency. My immediate goal was to transform it into an appropriately funded, efficient governmental office. “Another immediate goal was to offer compassion through this office. When citizens have to engage the services of the Coroner’s Office, something bad has happened — someone has died, is suffering a mental health crisis, or has been sexually assaulted. My goal was simple — for this office to do our best to lessen the burden of our citizens during their crisis and help them in the ways that we could. I wanted to offer compassion when informing someone of the loss of their loved one, hold their hand when explaining what the next steps will be. I pledged to be there for them.”