Campus News

Kozlowski to step down as dean of public health school

By SUE WUETCHER

Published April 17, 2014 This content is archived.

Print

Lynn T. Kozlowski, dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions for the past six years, will step down as dean at the end of the academic year to resume his role as a faculty member in the Department of Community Health and Health Behavior.

The university will appoint an interim dean to serve while the school conducts an international search for a new dean.

Lynn Kozlowski.

Lynn Kozlowski will resume his role as a professor in the Department of Community Health and Health Behavior. Photo: Douglas Levere

In message to the UB community announcing that Kozlowski was stepping down as dean on June 30, Provost Charles F Zukoski and Michael E. Cain, vice president for health sciences, called Kozlowski “a dedicated dean” who “has advanced each of UB’s teaching, research and, especially, engagement missions and has left the school well-poised to build on this success for years to come.”

Zukoski and Cain noted that one of Kozlowski’s most significant accomplishments as dean was leading the effort that earned the school full accreditation in 2009 from the Council on Education for Public Health, which put the school among an elite group of public health schools.

They also praised Kozlowski for advancing the school’s community engagement mission. During his time as dean, he created the Dean’s Community Advisory Council, which coordinates activities in the community, and the Office of Public Health Practice, which serves as a gateway between the school and area public health organizations. He also oversaw creation of the Office of Global Health Initiatives, which identifies and coordinates global health opportunities for education, research and engagement.

An international leader in the field of tobacco use and addiction, Kozlowski joined UB as a professor and founding chair of the Department of Health Behavior — now Community Health and Health Behavior — in 2006. He previously was professor and head of biobehavioral health in the College of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University.

He was named interim dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions in 2007 and became its second dean in 2008.

A prolific scholar, Kozlowski has authored more than 150 articles, book chapters and reviews, and has been continuously funded as a researcher while serving as dean.