UTSA Endowed and Named Chairs and Professorships   Profiles   Mark G. Yudof Dean's Endowed Professorship
UTSA Endowed and Named Chairs and Professorships
Lynne Cossman, Ph.D.
Mark G. Yudof Dean's Endowed Professorship
The Mark G. Yudof Dean's Endowed Professorship was established in 2015 by the University in honor of the UT System’s former Chancellor (2002-2008) who is an authority on constitutional law, freedom of expression, and education law. Yudof has written and edited books on free speech and gender discrimination, including four editions of his co-authored book, Educational Policy and the Law.

Lynne Cossman, Ph.D.

Mark G. Yudof Dean's Endowed Professorship

Dean, College for Health, Community and Policy

Professor, Sociology and Demography

Medical sociologist and demographer Jeralynn “Lynne” Sittig Cossman joined UTSA in May 2020 as founding dean of UTSA’s College for Health, Community and Policy (HCaP) and Mark G. Yudof Endowed Professor. As she leads the development of UTSA’s newest college, Cossman plans to build interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs that are designed to send UTSA students out into the community in health-related capacities—and from many perspectives.  

Prior to UTSA, Cossman served as chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University, an R1 research-intensive university, where she oversaw curriculum and program development in a department of 1,000 students in criminology, sociology and anthropology. Notably, she spearheaded the design and implementation of the university’s doctoral program in sociology. Additionally, she led the expansion of the department’s research infrastructure, including affiliating with multiple health science research centers, to support and provide funding opportunities for all doctoral students.  

Cossman’s own research focuses on community health and health professionals. She has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, among others. She is the author of approximately 70 peer-reviewed publications and has published in several sociology and interdisciplinary journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Social Problems, Health and Place, Population Research and Policy Review, Sociological Inquiry and The Journal of Rural Health.  

Her current research focuses on spatial concentrations of mortality and morbidity, the opioid epidemic and the Mountains of Hope cancer coalition in West Virginia.  

Prior to her time at WVU, Cossman worked from 2001 to 2014 at Mississippi State University, where she earned tenure and later promotion to full professor. She served in several administrative roles, including head of the Department of Sociology, graduate program coordinator and director of the women/gender studies program.