Rodney Lyn
Dean and Professor- Education
Ph.D., 2008, Georgia State University, Educational Policy Studies
M.S., 1997, Georgia State University, Exercise Science
B.A., 1995, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, Biology and Physical Education
- Specializations
Childhood obesity, physical activity, school and community health, health policy
- Biography
Rodney Lyn was appointed Dean of the School of Public Health in May 2021. He joined Georgia State in 2004 and has been on the public health faculty since 2007. He was appointed Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Strategic Initiatives in 2018 and named Interim Dean the following year. He previously served as Deputy Director for Georgia State’s NIH-funded Center of Excellence on Health Disparities Research.
Dr. Lyn’s research interests center around chronic disease prevention, with expertise on physical activity, healthy eating, obesity, cancer, and advancing health equity across these areas. He has published extensively on these topics. Dr. Lyn’s work is informed by community-based research principles, social and behavioral sciences, and policy, system, and environmental change approaches for chronic disease prevention and health promotion.
Dr. Lyn has led or contributed to grants totaling more than $16 million from federal and state agencies, foundations, and not-for-profit organizations. He is co-principal investigator for the Prevention Research Center at Georgia State, which is funded by a $3.75 million grant from the CDC and works with community leaders and organizations to identify community health needs and to intervene through research.
Dr. Lyn served on Georgia State’s COVID-19 Coordinating Committee and as a chair of the university’s Task Force for Racial Equality. He has led the successful recruitment of diverse faculty, reinvigorated alumni engagement to achieve historic fundraising goals, and overseen the establishment of a new graduate degree concentration, a 4+1 dual degree, and a new graduate certificate program in the School of Public Health. He also established the School of Public Health’s Diversity Council, a group charged with identifying actions the school can take to address and reduce systemic racism and police violence against Black people and other underrepresented groups.