Coward Named Dean Of Health
And Human Development At Penn State
21 January 2000
University Park, Pa. — Penn State’s Board of Trustees today (Jan. 21) approved the appointment of Raymond Thomas Coward, dean of the School of Health and Human Services and professor of health management and policy, social work and family studies at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), to be dean of Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, effective July 1.
"Raymond Coward is a distinguished scholar with significant administrative experience and we are very pleased that he will join Penn State," says Rodney A. Erickson, executive vice president and provost.
At UNH, Coward oversees the fiscal, academic and administrative operations of the second largest academic unit on campus. The School of Health and Human Services includes nine departments with graduate and undergraduate programs in such fields as communication disorders, family studies, nursing, recreation management and policy. The school also operates seven revenue-generating clinical practices and two research centers.
A specialist in gerontology, rural health and community services, he is the author or co-author of seven books, the latest of which is Aging in Rural Settings: Life Circumstances and Distinctive Features, published in 1998. He also is author of more than 100 book chapters and journal articles. He is currently associate editor of the Journal of Applied Gerontology and was the founding editor of the Journal of Rural Health. He has been a consultant to and his research has been funded by such agencies as the National Institute on Nursing, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, and the National Institute on Aging.
Before becoming dean of the School of Health and Human Services, Coward was the director of the Institute for Gerontology at the University of Florida where he was a member of the faculty of the College of Medicine from 1989 to 1997. He also taught at the University of Vermont from 1978 to 1989, where he was professor of social work and director of the Social Work program, among other administrative posts. Before that, he taught at Purdue University from 1975 to 1978, where he also was director of research for the Child Development Laboratories, and was a senior research associate at the National Institute of Education.
His primary research interests are in the development, delivery, and evaluation of health and human services. He has served as an expert witness and consultant to state and federal agencies and legislative bodies with responsibilities in social welfare and health and human services planning. Currently, he is a member of the New Hampshire ‘Kids Cabinet" chaired by Governor Jean Shaheen. Coward also is a trustee of Wentworth-Douglas Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire and serves on the board of directors of Seacoast Healthnet: a nonprofit agency providing health care intake and referrals to a network of 200 physicians who provide free or minimal cost care to persons without health insurance.
Among his many honors and awards, Coward has received the Professional Leadership Award from the National Council on Aging and the Distinguished Researcher Award from the National Rural Health Association. In 1991, Purdue University named him a Distinguished Alumnus and in 1989, he was the John K. Friesen Lecturer in Gerontology at Simon Fraser University.
Coward received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the College of New Jersey in 1968 and 1970, respectively, his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1974 and a Master’s of Social Work from McGill University in 1986. He will be joined in State College by his wife of 32 years, Andrea, a nurse. Their two children are attending college in Florida and South Carolina.
"I am looking forward to the opportunity to join the faculty at Penn State," said Coward. "The College of Health and Human Development has achieved enormous success in the past two decades and is poised to accomplish even greater renown in the future. It will be challenging, exciting, and rewarding for me to assume a leadership role in realizing those ambitions."
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Contact: Christy Rambeau (814) 865-7517 or e-mail at
