Clay did his undergraduate training at Union University where he met his wife, Joy. He went to the University of Tennessee for medical school and then completed the Internal Medicine-Pediatrics combined residency followed by an Emergency Medicine residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is board certified in Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, and Internal Medicine. His interests center on improving patient care by research knowledge translation, helping Emergency Medicine physicians/clinicians keep up with the medical literature. He divides his time between the adult and pediatric emergency departments and enjoys the variety this offers. Outside the hospital he enjoys spending time with his wife, kids, their spouses, and foster grandkids. He also loves going to all the fancy restaurants in the Nashville area, giving and receiving restaurant tips, walking/running (to work off all the calories), drinking vast quantities of coffee, traveling, and helping teach the 7th and 8th graders at his church.