Dr. Mawson obtained his bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from McGill University, Canada, his MA degree in sociology from the University of Essex, UK, and both MPH and DrPH degrees in epidemiology from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans. He was also a post-graduate student at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Prior to his current position at Jackson State, Dr. Mawson was Professor and first Director of the Public Health Program, Des Moines University—Osteopathic Medical Center, Des Moines, Iowa. There he initiated the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accreditation process and served on the Polk County Health Department executive committee. He also developed and coordinated a team-taught course on “Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response” under contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and assisted in the creation of a Geriatric Research and Education Center at the University. He was voted President-Elect of the Iowa Public Health Association in 2001.

Dr. Mawson’s career in epidemiology began at Louisiana State University Medical Center, New Orleans, serving as Data Manager/Epidemiologist for the Louisiana Rehabilitation Institute, Charity Hospital. He studied behavioral risk factors for spinal cord injury and carried out clinical and epidemiologic studies on injury prevention and on pressure ulcers, a common sequel to spinal cord injury. Subsequent posts at LSUMC included Coordinator of the hospital component of a CDC-funded study on Surveillance of Severe Pediatric Undernutrition in Louisiana, and Director of the Clinical Trials Unit, LSU Eye Center.

Dr. Mawson subsequently entered the field of managed care consulting (President, Chalfont Corporation) and worked on quality management, performance monitoring, evaluation and research projects with a number of major health maintenance organizations. This work led to a position at the Carolinas Healthcare System, Charlotte, NC, where he studied the quality of care of children with traumatic brain injury and served on the Research Review Committees of the Charlotte Institute of Rehabilitation and the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Mawson’s curriculum vitae reflects an eclectic range of interests that have led to several lines of research and to publications and funded work in public health, medicine, and the social sciences. An early and continuing interest in the biological basis of “stimulation-seeking” behavior has led to papers on eating disorders and antisocial personality, a book on stress-induced crime, and recent papers on injury prevention, physical violence, and addiction. Dr. Mawson also has a long-standing interest in the pleiotropic role of retinoids (vitamin A and its congeners) in health and disease. His publications in this area include work on rheumatic and autoimmune diseases, asthma, hepatitis B-associated liver damage, onchocerciasis, and cancer.

Dr. Mawson’s current focus is on understanding and addressing disparities in health and health care for minorities and historically underserved populations. Working closely with the research staff and faculty of the School of Health Sciences, he is helping to build the infrastructure of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Services Research and Center of Excellence in Minority Health through grants, contracts and collaborative partnerships with universities and community-based organizations.

 

Selected Publications

Mawson AR. Understanding mass panic and other collective responses to threat and disaster. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 2005; 68(2): 95-113 (with commentaries).

Mawson AR. Intentional Injury and the behavioral syndrome. Aggression and Violent Behavior 2005; 10 (March-April): 375-405.

Mawson AR. Commentary: Strategies to reduce caesarean section delivery rates should be strengthened and diversified beyond a mandatory second opinion. Evidence-Based Public Health & Healthcare 2004; 8:392-395.

Mawson AR. Ethics of large clinical trials in rapidly lethal diseases. Lancet 2003; 361:1296.

Mawson AR. Effects of antiretroviral therapy and the occurrence of pre-eclampsia. Lancet 2003; 361:347-48.

Mawson AR, WaKabongo M. Onchocerciasis-associated morbidity: hypothesis. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2002; 96:1-2.

Mawson AR, Guignard JC. Preventing heat-induced death in vehicles. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2002; 23(3):233-34.

Mawson AR. Reducing cesarean section delivery rates in managed care organizations. American Journal of Managed Care 2002; 8:730-740.

Mawson AR, Lapsley PM, Hoffman A, Guignard J. Preventing lethal violence in schools: the case for entry-based weapons screening. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 2002; 27 (April):243-260 (with editorial and commentaries by Jackson Toby and David Hemenway).

Mawson AR. On not taking the world as you find it—epidemiology in its place. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 2002; 55:1-4.

Mawson AR. Could bronchial asthma be an endogenous, pulmonary expression of retinoid intoxication? Frontiers in Bioscience 2001; 6:d973-985.

Mawson AR, Steele T. Possible role of retinoids in hepatitis B virus-associated morbidity. Experimental Biology and Medicine 2001; 226(8):734-39.

Erickson JM, Mawson AR. Possible role of retinoid (vitamin A) intoxication in the pathophysiology of primary biliary cirrhosis. Journal of Theoretical Biology 2000 (Sept 7); 206(1):47-54.

Mawson AR. Reinterpreting physical violence: outcome of intense stimulation-seeking behavior. Academic Emergency Medicine 1999; 6:863-865.

Mawson AR. Addiction as stimulation-seeking behavior: implications for treatment. Integrative Medicine 1999; 2:27-30.

Mawson AR. Stimulation-induced behavioral inhibition: a new model for understanding physical violence. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science 1999; 34(3): 177-197.

Mawson AR. Breast cancer in female flight attendants. Lancet 1998; 352:626 (letter, August 22, with responses and rejoinders, October 24, 1998 issue).

Mawson AR. The place of hysterectomy in the management of benign uterine disease. HMO Practice 1996; 10:69-74.

Mawson AR, Biundo JJ Jr, Clemmer DI, Jacobs KW, Ktsanes VI, Rice JC. Sensation-seeking, criminality, and traumatic spinal cord injury: A case control study. American Journal of Epidemiology 1996; 144:463-72.

Mawson AR, Warrier R, Kuvibidila A, and Suskind RM. Pediatric AIDS and nutrition. In R.M. Suskind and L.Lewinter-Suskind (eds.), Textbook of Pediatric Nutrition (Second edition), Raven Press, New York, 1993, pp. 447-455.

Mawson AR, Siddiqui FH, and Biundo JJ Jr. Enhancing host resistance to pressure ulcers: a new approach to prevention. Preventive Medicine 1993; 22:433-450.

Mawson AR, Siddiqui FH, Sharp CJ, Connolly B, Summer WR, and Biundo JJ Jr.  Sacral transcutaneous oxygen tension levels in the spinal cord injured: risk factor for pressure ulcers?  Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 1993; 74:745-751.

Mawson AR, Siddiqui FH, Sharp CJ, Connolly B, Stewart G, Summer WR and Biundo JJ Jr. Effect of high voltage pulsed galvanic stimulation on sacral transcutaneous oxygen tension levels in the spinal cord injured. Paraplegia 1993; 31:311-319.

Mawson AR, Suskind RM.  Separate chapters on Magnesium deficiency and Zinc deficiency, in F.G. Burg et al. (eds), Gellis and Kagan's Current Pediatric Therapy 14. W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1993.

Mawson AR, Onor GI. Gout and vitamin A intoxication: Is there a connection?  Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism 1991; 20 (5):297-304.

Mawson AR, Snelling L, Winchester Y, and Biundo JJ Jr.  526 spinal cord injuries: Experience of the Louisiana Rehabilitation Institute, 1965-1984. Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society 1991; 143:31-37.

Mawson AR, Reed JA. An earthquake alarm system. Paper presented at a conference on Safety in the Built Environment, Portsmouth, U.K., July 1988.  Published in J. Sime (ed.), Safety in the Built Environment. London, F. Spon Publishers, 1988.

Mawson AR, Biundo JJ Jr, Neville P, Linares H, Winchester Y, and Lopez A.  Risk factors for early-occurring pressure ulcers following spinal cord injury.  American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 1988; 67:123?127.

Mawson AR, Jacobs KW, Winchester Y, and Biundo JJ Jr. Sensation-seeking and traumatic spinal cord injury: Case-control study. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 1988; 69:1039-1043.

Linares HA, Mawson AR, Suarez E, and Biundo, J.J., Jr.  Association between pressure sores and immobilization in the immediate post-injury period.  Orthopedics 1987; 10:571-573.

Mawson AR. Transient Criminality: A Model of Stress-Induced Crime. Praeger Publishers, New York, 1987 (335 pp).

Mawson AR. Speculations on the origin of the ill-effects associated with the use of video display terminals. Journal of Theoretical Biology 1985; 114(2):223-241.

Mawson AR, Biundo JJ Jr. Contrasting beliefs and actions regarding seat belts: a study in New Orleans. Journal of Trauma 1985; 25:433-437.

Mawson AR. Are rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus inversely-related diseases?  Medical Hypotheses 1985; 18:377-386.

Mawson AR.  Systemic lupus erythematosus, renal disease, hemodialysis, and vitamin A.  Medical Hypotheses 1985; 18:387-398.

Mawson AR. Hypervitaminosis A toxicity and gout. Lancet 1984; i (May 26): 1181 (letter).

Mawson AR. Aggression, attachment behavior, and crimes of violence. In T. Hirschi and M. Gottfredson (eds.), Understanding Crime: Current Theory and Research. Beverly Hills, Sage 1980, pp. 103-116. (Paper presented at the American Society of Criminology, Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, November 1979).

Mawson AR. Temporal aspects of the response to stress.  In D.J. Oborne, M. Gruneberg, and J.R. Eiser (eds.), Research in Psychology and Medicine, Vol. 1: Physical Aspects: Pain, Stress, Diagnosis and Physical Injury. London, Academic Press, 1979, pp. 93-100.

Mawson AR. Whale strandings: hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses 1978; 4:273-276.

Mawson AR. Attenuating affect of fighting on shock-induced gastric lesions and hypertension: hypothesis of inhibition by sensory feedback. Medical Hypotheses 1978; 4:403-410.

Mawson AR, Jacobs KW. Corn consumption, tryptophan, and cross-national homicide rates. Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry 1978; 8: 227?230.

Mawson AR, Mawson CD. Psychopathy and arousal: a new interpretation of the psychophysiological literature. Biological Psychiatry 1977; 2:49?74.

Mawson AR.  Suicide and self destructive behavior: A biopsychosocial hypothesis. Proceedings on Suicide, Our Lady of the Holy Cross College, New Orleans, May 1977.

Mawson AR. Hypertension, blood pressure variability, and juvenile delinquency.  Southern Medical Journal 1977: 12:160-164.

Mawson AR. Toward a more effective publication system in sociology. American Sociologist 1977; 12:49-50 (letter, with rejoinders, pp. 50-52).

Mawson AR. Anorexia nervosa and the regulation of intake: a review. Psychological Medicine 1974; 4:298-308.

Mawson AR. Durkheim and contemporary social pathology. British Journal of Sociology 1970; 21:298-313.