Skip to main content

MC Promotes Gary Mayfield as Dean


Gary Mayfield's recent promotion to dean of the Mississippi College School of Humanities and Social Work is a well-deserved honor, colleagues say.

"Gary Mayfield is one of the most accomplished academicians I know," said Ron Howard, MC's vice president for academic affairs. "He has given resourceful and creative leadership to the Sociology and Social Work Program and he is doing the same as the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences."

Mayfield served for more than a year as interim dean of the MC School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The school includes the departments of English, foreign languages, history and political science and sociology and social work.

A graduate of Louisiana College where he earned a bachelor's degree in sociology, Mayfield earned a master's in the field at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas and a doctorate in sociology from Emory University in Atlanta. He also received a master's in divinity and counseling at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Mayfield began teaching at MC in 1986 as an assistant professor in sociology and social work. He chaired the sociology department until 1989. After serving as an administrator and professor at Louisiana College, Mayfield returned to MC in 2005. He began serving as interim dean of the MC School of Humanities and Social Sciences in the summer of 2006.

Said Howard: "Few people bring the combination of talents he brings to his role as administrator and professor."

Mayfield wears another hat on the Clinton campus as chairman of the Sociology Department.

At the 4,600-student Christian university, Mayfield teaches such courses as medical and health care, aging, social psychology, law and social control. His specialties include geriatrics and aging issues.

PHOTO: Gary Mayfield