Dr. Cozzette Lyons-Jones, chief medical officer at Watts Healthcare, recognized as “distinguished alum” by UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
Dr. Cozette Lyons-Jones (MPH ’18) has been inducted into UCLA Fielding School's Hall of Fame.
Dr. Cozzette Lyons-Jones, chief medical officer at Watts Healthcare Corporation in Los Angeles, has been inducted into the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s “Alumni Hall of Fame” for 2025.
“A sense of community guided me into the safety-net space in Watts. There, I have had the privilege of serving communities that look like the one that raised me,” said Lyons-Jones, a physician who earned her master of public health (MPH) degree at UCLA Fielding. “We have worked to elevate quality, build training programs, launch telehealth during the pandemic, and strengthen systems worthy of the people we serve. Community health centers should never be clinics of last resort - they should be centers of excellence: equitable, dignified, and culturally attuned.”
In December, seven distinguished graduates of UCLA Fielding were recognized for their work since graduation as having a major impact on public health, in Los Angeles and globally. Lyons-Jones’ leadership at Watts Healthcare includes expanding remote patient monitoring, AI-enabled diabetic retinopathy screening, and enhancing clinical documentation tools, as well as a key partnership with Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles that led to the launch of Internal Medicine and Pediatric Sports Medicine residency clinics at Watts.
Those elements of her work were cited by UCLA Fielding’s Prof. Avram Kaplan, who serves in the Department of Health Policy and Management and nominated Lyons-Jones’ for the Hall of Fame.
“Cozzette sets the highest bar for community medicine; particularly in advancing health and wellness in historically underserved areas. Her energy and dedication are a constant,” Kaplan said. “She serves as an example of community involvement, leadership, education and compassionate medical care - qualities that resonate with our students and so many in the public health community at large.”
Lyons-Jones earned her bachelor of science from Cornell University, her doctor of medicine from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo in 1997, and her master of public health from UCLA Fielding in 2018.
The latest honorees join a list of more than 90 UCLA Fielding School of Public Health alum, ranging from the classes of 1963 to 2019. Nominees are considered by a committee made up of the UCLA Fielding Public Health Alumni Association Board and serving faculty members.
That legacy, of all UCLA Fielding Hall of Fame inductees, is key to the enduring impact of the school on public health around the globe, said Dr. Ron Brookmeyer, dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and a distinguished professor of biostatistics.
“We are living in a time of unprecedented challenges and uncertainties for universities and for public health, and organizations like the Public Health Alumni Association are more important now than ever,” Brookmeyer said. “Whether your career is well-established or if you’re just starting out - your presence here today strengthens our collective resolve to improve public health in Los Angeles, in California, and beyond."
