Mark D. Hayward is a professor of sociology, a Centennial Commission Professor in the Liberal Arts, and a faculty research associate of the Population Research Center at the University of Texas. Hayward is a health demographer and population health scientist with a long history of NIA and NICHD research grants supporting his research program. Currently, his work is focusing on two major questions: 1) “upstream institutional levers” of adult mortality trends and disparities, and 2) early life developmental origins of cognitive health and dementia in the older population. Hayward is a recipient of the Matilda White Riley Award from the National Institutes of Health for his contributions to behavioral and social scientific knowledge relevant to mission of NIH. He has served on a number of scientific advisory boards including, for example, the Committee on Population (NASEM), a National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the NIH Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health, and the Board of Scientific Counselors (National Center for Health Statistics). Hayward has held a number of major elected roles in his professional societies (e.g., President of the Southern Demographic Society and chair of the ASA sections on Aging and the Life Course and Sociology of Population). Currently, he is a member of an NASEM Study Committee developing a Decadal Report on the value of social science research for investigating Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias. He also is the current editor of his field’s major journal, Demography.
Hayward is a committed teacher and mentor. His teaching interests focus on population health and health disparities and survival models. Hayward has mentored numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to distinguished careers both at major universities as well as federal agencies. He also has served as the faculty mentor for junior scientists supported by NIH-career development awards. His faculty mentees have been from several disciplines including human development, psychology and sociology. Hayward recently received the “Outstanding Mentor Award” from the Section on Aging and the Life Course of the American Sociological Association.
Hayward received his PhD in sociology in 1981 from Indiana University and his undergraduate degree in sociology in 1975 from Washington State University.