Dental School brings in prof to fill dean post

University of Alabama School of Dentistry Professor Marjorie Jeffcoat has been appointed the new dean of Penn's School of Dental Medicine. Jeffcoat will replace current Dean Raymond Fonseca, who will reach the end of his term in June. Fonesca has been dean since 1989. Jeffcoat -- who graduated from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine -- has served as assistant dean of research and is chairwoman of Alabama's Periodontics Department. She will assume her new position at Penn this summer. "I am really, truly excited about coming to Philadelphia," Jeffcoat said. The new dean was selected by a 12-person committee that searched for potential candidates during the past academic year both among members of the Penn community and people outside the University. "We are delighted that a researcher and academic of Dr. Jeffcoat's caliber will be bringing her considerable talents to Penn's Dental School," University President Judith Rodin said in a press release. Although she has never collaborated directly with Penn, Jeffcoat has had numerous contacts with the University's faculty and research teams while practicing dentistry and conducting clinical research. Her arrival on campus, then, will be somewhat of a "coming home" for her, Jeffcoat said. The most prominent duty of the new dean will be to oversee the Dental School program, in which graduate students acquire the skills needed to become dental practitioners, while the postdoctoral students focus on the various specialties the school offers. Jeffcoat will also be heavily involved with the Philadelphia community through the Penn Dental Care Network, a series of dental clinics located in the city's area. She said these institutions will offer residents patient care by Penn's "best of the best," greater access to services and special expertise for particular cases. "We're not only looking at teeth," Jeffcoat said. "We're looking at the whole person, and that's really exciting." As for future plans, the new dean has declared that she will put an emphasis on clinical research. Jeffcoat will propose that the Dental School consider how dentists obtain new drugs and devices, help develop them through new research and conduct trials to make sure the innovations under examinations will work appropriately. She may not yet have taken office, but Jeffcoat already has clear in her mind what she plans to achieve as dean -- to "turn out the best dentists that there can possibly be."