Dental Medicine Dean Stepping Down

Dr. Marjorie Jeffcoat will step down as dean of the School of Dental Medicine, effective July 1, 2008.

During her tenure as dean for the past five years, the School has been strengthened financially and academically in many ways. Among her most significant accomplishments, the School’s graduate scores and rank on regional examinations have risen to an all-time high; long-standing debt and annual deficits have been erased and reversed; distinguished faculty have been recruited to fill key positions that had been vacant for a decade; the School passed its 2007 accreditation with high praise from the accreditation team; and in a time of shrinking NIH budgets, the School's research portfolio has actually broadened.

Dr. Jeffcoat will return to the department of periodontics as a tenured faculty member where she will continue her ongoing research, teaching, and public service activities.

Dr. Thomas Sollecito has agreed to serve as interim dean until a successor for Dr. Jeffcoat has been found. Dr. Arthur Rubenstein, dean of the Penn School of Medicine and executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, has agreed to chair the search committee.

Posted 6/10/08

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