Assistant Professor
I was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan. I found my way to Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, where I studied Biology, worked in environmental consulting for several years and then went to graduate school at Oregon State and Grand Valley State University. Then while working full-time in graduate and undergraduate medical education, I went to MSU for my PhD in Sociology with a specialization in Environmental Science and Policy.
I have varied work experiences, including environmental chemistry and biology, environmental project management and engineering, grant writing and management, and health services and outcomes research. Before coming to MSU’s MPH program, I was an assistant professor at Central Michigan University College of Medicine. Currently, I teach the required Intro, and elective Applied Biostatistics courses for MSU’s MPH program and a course focused on systematic review methodology.
Lately, I have been working on research that focuses on health outcomes and disparities in people with diabetes and multiple chronic conditions. I am working to shed light on how COVID-19 has influenced the course of disease for people with diabetes. I’m especially interested in disparities in outcomes related to race, as well as how rural experiences shape disease progression and access to care. Finally, I am interested in how political and religious ideology informs attitudes about science. While some of my early work focused on environmental issues, I am expanding this to explore how these ideologies affect healthcare and medical science attitudes.
At my core, I love exploring how data can be used to answer questions related to these topics. While there are limitations to data (it can’t tell me an opinion or how a person is feeling), it can provide evidence that can be used to advocate for restructuring systems in society that for too long have disadvantaged some groups of people.
Selected Publications:
Clements, John M, Neli P Ragina, Jordan Killingsworth, Thomas G Weiss, S Akbar Husain, Mariam Zunnu Rain, Kellie M Clark, Spandana Alla, and Michelle G Jin. 2020. Differences in Spending for Diabetes and Multiple Chronic Conditions in Michigan Medicare Beneficiaries. The American Journal of Managed Care 26(11):e362-e368. View Publication.
Clements, John M, Brady T West, Batoul Harissa, Nolan Hayden, Mishaal Mustafa Khan, and Raghuram Palepu. 2020. Race Disparities in the Use of Prevention, Screening, and Monitoring Services in Michigan Medicare Beneficiaries with Type 2 Diabetes and Combinations of Multiple Chronic Conditions Clinical Diabetes. 38(4):363-370. View Publication.
Farley, Brendan J, Brian M Shear, Vivian Lu, Kyla Walworth, Kevin Gray, Matt Kirsch, John M Clements. 2020. Rural, Urban, and Teaching Hospital Differences in Hip Fracture Mortality. Journal of Orthopaedics 21:453-458 View Publication.
Clements, John M. 2020. Knowledge and Behaviors Toward COVID-19 Among U.S. Residents During the Early Days of the Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Online Questionnaire. JMIR Public Health Surveillance 6(2):e19161. View Publication.
Clements, John M, Mariana Rosca, Carla Cavallin, Shelby Falkenhagen, Thomas Ittoop, Christina K Jung, Megan Mazella, Joseph A Reed, Megan Schluentz, and Caleb VanDyke. 2020. Type 2 Diabetes and Chronic Conditions Disparities in Medicare Beneficiaries in the State of Michigan. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences 359(4):218-225. View Publication.
Clements, John M, Brady T West, Zachary Yaker, Breanna Lauinger, Deven McCullers, James Haubert, Mohammad Ali Tahboub, and Gregory J Everett. 2019. Disparities in Diabetes-related Multiple Chronic Conditions and Mortality: The Influence of Race. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice 159(2020):107984. View Publication
Fana, Michael, Gregory Everett, Thomas Fagan, Megan Mazella, Sulmaz Zahedi, John M Clements. 2019. Procedural outcomes of deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery in rural and urban patient population settings, Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 72:310-315. View Publication.
Clements, John M. and Stephanie J Rhynard. 2018. In-hospital Mortality, Length of Stay and Discharge Disposition in a Cohort of Rural and Urban Native Americans. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research 25(3):78-91, View Publication.
Selected Media Coverage:
To request a comprehensive CV summarizing Dr. Clements’s achievements, email
