Mark D. Hayward

Mark D. Hayward is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, holding the Centennial Commission Professorship in the Liberal Arts #2. He is also a faculty research associate at the Population Research Center. With a Ph.D. from Indiana University Bloomington, Dr. Hayward has established himself as a leading scholar in population health, demography, and biodemography.

Dr. Hayward has held numerous leadership positions in professional organizations, including serving as president of the Interdisciplinary Association of Population Health Science and the Southern Demographic Association. He has also chaired sections of the American Sociological Association and served on boards of the Population Association of America and the Society of Biodemography and Social Biology. His extensive service includes membership on the Committee on Population at the National Academy of Sciences and the Board of Scientific Counselors at the National Center for Health Statistics, as well as the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health and Society Scholars Program.

His research focuses on two primary questions: (1) How life course exposures from childhood into adulthood influence the health and mortality of older adults, examining the 'long arm of childhood' perspective that investigates how early life events potentially impact health decades later; and (2) How inequalities in adult health and mortality arise from educational experience, with particular emphasis on how education influences trends and disparities in dementia, disability, and mortality. His work has substantially expanded current knowledge about these relationships and has examined how US state policies shape educational inequalities and health outcomes.

Dr. Hayward's scholarly output demonstrates significant trends in understanding the social determinants of health across the lifespan. His recent work has increasingly focused on dementia epidemiology, racial disparities in health outcomes, and the role of regional contexts (particularly the Southern US) in shaping health trajectories. His publications span high-impact journals including the American Journal of Public Health, Demography, JAMA, the Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Social Science and Medicine.

Throughout his career, Dr. Hayward has been actively involved in enhancing the measurement and collection of population health data, particularly longitudinal studies. He has served on advisory boards for numerous national health studies and provided scientific guidance to universities, NIH, private foundations, and federal agencies. His research has been consistently funded by the National Institute on Aging and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development.

Dr. Hayward teaches courses including H S 378 • Seminar In Health & Society and SOC 389K • Human Mortality, reflecting his expertise in population health, mortality patterns, and the social determinants of health across the life course.