CBSHS Dean Hossfeld honored for lifetime achievement in sociology

Leslie Hossfeld, dean of Clemson University’s College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, has received the North Carolina Sociological Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Discipline of Sociology.

Hossfeld received the award at the organization’s annual meeting last month at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Pembroke.

During her time as a faculty member and researcher in UNC Pembroke and UNC Wilmington (UNCW), she was an active member of the North Carolina Sociological Association, recruiting students and faculty to contribute to the association’s development. Trained in rural sociology at N.C. State University, she also helped shape sociology academic programs in North Carolina, co-founding the public sociology master of arts program at UNCW and serving as chair of the university’s Department of Sociology and Criminology.

Hossfeld was also honored for her work in spearheading community development projects across North Carolina. She was co-chair of the Task Force on Public Sociologies, lead researcher and founding member of the Latino Lay Health Promotore Program, founder and faculty director of the Wilmington Housing Authority-UNCW Community Partnership, co-founder of the Jobs for the Future Project for the Center for Community Action in Lumberton, and co-founder, executive director and president of the Southeastern N.C. Food System Program. She continued this service after becoming head of Mississippi State University’s Department of Sociology, serving as founder and director of the Mississippi Food Insecurity Project and associate director of the Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities.

Hossfeld has used her expertise to promote social and policy change by presenting to U.S. Congress and the N.C. General Assembly on job loss and rural economic decline, and she has secured numerous grants to advance economic and social change in the Southeast, including North Carolina.

“Dr. Hossfeld has made a permanent mark on communities throughout the Southeast through her practical outreach and scholarly engagement efforts,” said North Carolina Sociological Association President Stacye Blount.“Her tireless devotion to advancing the well-being of impoverished and food-insecure communities in North Carolina, Mississippi, South Carolina and beyond, and to teaching her students and encouraging her colleagues to do the same, has made a lasting impact of the well-being of many lives and communities.”

Hossfeld became dean of Clemson’s College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences in July 2018. In addition to her Ph.D. from N.C. State, she holds a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Mississippi and a bachelor’s degree in history from UNC Wilmington.