About Dean Leslie Hossfeld

Dean Leslie Hossfeld joined Clemson University as dean of the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences in July 2018.

Dean Hossfeld serves as the chief academic, fiscal, and administrative officer for a college that includes seven departments, 15 bachelor’s programs, 12 concentrations, 13 master’s programs, 10 doctoral programs, nine research centers and institutes, and a research enterprise with more than $88 million in grant and contract awards, $25 million in endowments, and an operating budget of over $70 million. She guides the work of more than 400 faculty and 120 staff who serve 4,800-plus students. Dean Hossfeld has secured over $6 million in external research grants and contracts to support and advance the Building Healthy Communities program and Clemson Rural Health initiative, which brings together the College's nine disciplines to address critical needs across South Carolina’s 46 counties through research, teaching, and service.

Prior to joining Clemson, Dean Hossfeld was professor and head of the department of sociology, criminology, and social work at Mississippi State University from 2015 to 2018. As department head, she expanded teaching, research, and service capacity by adding faculty expertise in rural sociology and strengthening partnerships with key state and university research institutes, increasing research productivity by 47 percent. She led the department in interdisciplinary research focused on improving the lives of rural Mississippians through the land-grant mission, assembling community engagement projects around food security and working closely with organizations in the Mississippi Delta on health disparities, food access, and food sovereignty initiatives.

At Mississippi State, she served as founding director of the Mississippi Food Insecurity Project, which examines and documents food insecurity and food access in the state. She was appointed to the MSU-University of Mississippi Medical Center Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for the Elimination of Health Disparities, serving as associate director of food systems/food security and economic development. She was also named a research fellow at the Mississippi State University Social Science Research Center.

Before joining Mississippi State University, Dean Hossfeld was professor and chair of the department of sociology and criminology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW). There, she founded the Public Sociology Program, which developed the nation’s first public sociology bachelor’s and master’s program focused on scholarly community engagement.

With deep ties to southeastern North Carolina, Dean Hossfeld led several large-scale research initiatives, including the founding of the Southeastern North Carolina Food Systems program, which developed a six-county rural economic development food systems initiative focused on strengthening farm businesses for socially disadvantaged farmers. This work included developing a USDA-designated food hub in partnership with the town of Burgaw, North Carolina. She raised more than $5 million in public and private funding for these initiatives.

While at UNCW, Dean Hossfeld also founded the Wilmington Housing Authority-UNCW partnership, creating applied interdisciplinary research and learning opportunities and securing philanthropic and research grant support. These efforts garnered national recognition through the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) Agency Award of Merit in Housing and Community Development. She was named the Margaret Devereux Lippitt Rorison Faculty Fellow in Community Engagement at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and, in 2011, received the University of North Carolina Distinguished Faculty Public Service and Scholarly Engagement Award.

Due to her extensive work in rural economic development, Dean Hossfeld was appointed by N.C. Congressman Bob Etheridge to the USDA Strikeforce Rural Economic Development Advisory Board. In 2004, she testified before the N.C. Joint Committee on Growth and Economic Development on her research on rural job loss and economic restructuring. She also presented her research on rural economic restructuring to the Congressional Rural Caucus and testified before Congress in 2009 on gender and job loss. She served on the USDA SERA-47 Southern Extension Research Activity project to strengthen local and regional food needs and priorities in 13 Southern states.

A rural sociologist, Dean Hossfeld's research expertise includes community and economic development, agrarianism, food and nutrition security, and rural health disparities. She has delivered more than 150 research presentations at national and international conferences and published over 80 peer-reviewed works, including books, book chapters, technical reports, white papers, research briefs, and journal articles.

Dean Hossfeld has held key leadership positions in national and regional organizations, including serving as president of the Southern Sociological Society, vice president of Sociologists for Women in Society, chair of the American Sociological Association Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology, and a member of the American Sociological Association Taskforce on Public Sociology. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Discipline of Sociology by the North Carolina Sociological Association in 2019 and received the 2023 Excellence in Scholarship Award for Outstanding Contributions to Sociology from the South Carolina Sociological Association.

Dean Hossfeld holds a Ph.D. in sociology from North Carolina State University, a master's degree in social science from the University of Mississippi, and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

• 2024 – Recipient, Clemson University Research Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Awards, URSAA, Division of Research, for annual expenditures exceeding $1 million.
• 2023 - Recipient, Excellence in Scholarship Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contributions to Sociology, South Carolina Sociological Association
• 2019 - Recipient, Lifetime Achievement Award, Outstanding Contributions to the Discipline of Sociology, North Carolina Sociological Association
• 2018 - Recipient, President’s Commission on the Status of Women Faculty Award, Mississippi State University
• 2017 - Research Fellow, Texas Hunger Initiative, Baylor University
• 2017 - Fellow, Southeast Conference Universities (SEC) Academic Leadership Development Program, 2017-2018
• 2017 - Co-Lead, Learning Communities Committee, SERA 47, USDA Research Project
• 2016 - Research Fellow, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University
• 2016 - Council Member, Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (SDFR) Research Task Force, SDRF Policy Research Center, federal research center of Alcorn State University
• 2016 - Council Member, Southeastern Health Equity Council
• 2016 - Member, SERA 47 Working Group, Strengthening the Southern Region Extension and Research System to Support Local and Regional Food Needs and Priorities, 13-state initiative, U.S. Department of Agriculture
• 2015 - Associate Director, Local Food Systems, Food Insecurity, Food Access and Economic Development, UMMC-MSU Myrlie Evers-Williams Center for the Elimination of Health Disparities
• 2015 - Expert Stakeholder, Southeastern Health Equity Council Region 4
• 2014 - Appointee, USDA Strikeforce Rural Economic Development Advisory Board
• 2013 - Named Margaret Devereux Lippitt Rorison Faculty Fellow in Community Engagement, University of North Carolina Wilmington
• 2012 - Recipient, Faculty Research Award, University of North Carolina Wilmington 
• 2011 - Recipient, 2011 Distinguished Faculty Public Service and Scholarly Engagement Award, University of North Carolina Wilmington 
• 2011 - Recipient, 2011 Outstanding Professor Discere Aude Award, University of North Carolina Wilmington

• 2010 - Inductee, James F. Merritt Million Dollar Club, University of North Carolina Wilmington
• 2010 - Wilmington Housing Authority received a National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) Agency Award of Merit in Housing and Community Development, based on the program Hossfeld founded at the WHA-UNCW Community Campus at Hillcrest
• 2008 - Recipient, Faculty Fellow Engagement, University of North Carolina Wilmington
• 2006 - Recipient, Research Development Initiatives Award, College of Arts and Sciences Research Committee, University of North Carolina Wilmington
• 2005 - Recipient, 25^th Anniversary Award, Center for Community Action, Community Engagement, in the area of Economy for Outstanding Leadership and Contribution to the Well-Being of Community Life
• 2004 - Inaugural Research Fellow in Public Policy and Public Engagement, Institute for Emerging Issues, North Carolina State University, 2004-2005
• 2004 - Recipient, Special Recognition Award, Outstanding Service to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Regional Community, Awarded by Provost
• 2004 - Recipient, Certificate of Distinguished Leadership from the Leadership and Service Opportunities Program, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
• 2004 - Recipient, Sydney S. Spivack Program in Applied Social Research and Social Policy Community Action Research Award, American Sociological Association
• 2003 - Recipient, Nancy Pollock Dissertation Award for Outstanding Scholarly Research, benefiting the North Carolina Economy and the Quality of Life for its Citizens, North Carolina State University
• 1999 - Inductee, Alpha Kappa Delta, International Honors Society for Sociologists
• 1998 - Inductee, Sigma Iota Rho, National Honors Society for International Studies