An Important Message From Our Department Head

Dear WGSS Colleagues, Students and Friends,

I am sad to report the passing of our former colleague, Professor Phyllis Kernoff Mansfield. Her daughter Becky reached out and asked that I share this with all of you:  Phyllis Kernoff Mansfield, Penn State emeritus professor, died on October 12, 2022. She died at home, with family at her side, in Boothbay, Maine. Professor Mansfield joined Penn State as an assistant professor of nursing in 1983.

She was named associate professor of health education and women’s studies in 1989, and professor of women’s studies and health education in 1994. She later became the first full-time women’s studies faculty and served as the interim chair of the department. She retired in 2007.  A scholar who used feminist approaches to provide new perspectives on women’s reproductive health, she was also a teacher who touched many students’ lives. In 1994 she received the Dorothy Jones Barnes Teaching Award in the College of Health and Human Development, and in 1998 she received Penn State’s Alumni Teaching Award.

Professor Mansfield is survived by her husband Richard, children Becky and David, four grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter.

In solidarity,

Alicia Decker

Department Head of WGSS