With 30 years of experience in Community and Agency Counseling, Eddrena Clark has additional knowledge in program and youth development; individual, group and couples counseling; support group facilitation; domestic violence and crisis intervention. She was awarded the opportunity to be a member of the annual High Potential Diverse Leaders (HPDL) class of 2014. This experience afforded her training, coaching, access, networking opportunities, support systems and interaction with nonprofit leaders that enhanced her leadership skills.

Eddrena is using the tools learned and best and practices taught to become a more effective Program Manager. She has had experience working with battered women and their children as well as working in the school system as a Guidance Counselor for grades pre-kindergarten through fifth.

During her eight year tenure at Future Foundation, a nonprofit organization that caters to youth and their parents in the South Futon counties of metro Atlanta, she has managed one of the largest core programs of the agency, RealTalk ATL.  While supervising seven staffers, youth interns and volunteers, Eddrena is responsible for program development, staff supervision, budget management, partnership enhancement, data collection and evaluation.

RealTalk gives teens a safe place at school to discuss those difficult conversations that aren’t always easy to talk about: dating, relationships and sex. We have serviced more than 7,000 teens with our healthy relationship curriculum and serviced more than 800 parents with our parenting, relationship and job readiness curriculum. Eddrena has served in the capacity of chairperson for the agency’s Wellness Program and Stakeholder Appreciation; she has also coordinated special agency events such as the Back to School Rally, the Thanksgiving Dinner, the Red Event, Safe Prom, and Black Marriage Day. She’s especially proud of the RealTalk Ambassadors program, where she and her team train their students to be the agency’s mouth piece and teach their peers about healthy relationships. Eddrena’s goal is to support and positively shape teens into responsible adults.

Eddrena is a native of Chicago, Illinois…the Windy City and her family continues to reside in Chicago. She is the eldest of three. She attended Tougaloo College and Jackson State University in Mississippi where she earned a Bachelor of Art degree in Psychology/Mental Health and Master of Science degree in Guidance and Counseling. She married her college sweetheart of 28 years, Edward M. Clark and they have two amazing children, Quinten (23) and Lindsey (19) Clark. She co-labors with her husband in their church’s couple’s ministry and she is the Women’s Ministry leader. Recently, Eddrena and a colleague established a monthly support group for incarcerated loved ones in metro Atlanta.