Rodrigo Neiva has served as the chair of the Department of Periodontics since 2019.
A department chair at Penn’s School of Dental Medicine has left his position one month after he went on a leave of absence from the department for an “indeterminate time.”
Mark Wolff, the Morton Amsterdam dean of the Dental School, announced the departure of periodontics professor and department Chair Rodrigo Neiva in a schoolwide email on Aug. 20. His leave of absence and subsequent departure follow recent reporting by The Daily Pennsylvanian on a lawsuit originally filed in 2022, alleging that Neiva violated University policies by engaging in “sexually explicit and harassing conduct” toward two Dental School employees.
Neiva led the Dental School’s Periodontics Department, the school’s second-largest department, since September 2019. The DP was unable to reach Neiva for comment.
“We do not normally comment on personnel issues, but I will clearly state that Dr Nieva’s resignation had NOTHING to do with the 2022 lawsuit!” Wolff wrote in response to a request for comment.
In December 2022, a former Dental School administrator filed a lawsuit against the school and Wolff regarding events, including some related to Neiva’s conduct, that took place in 2021. In the suit, the former administrator alleged that he was pressured to leave his job after he complained of “sexually explicit and harassing conduct” toward his assistant by Neiva.
The administrator’s complaint included allegations that Neiva sent nude and sexually explicit images to two subordinate employees. Proceedings in the lawsuit continued through 2023 and this year.
In its defense filing, Penn stated that an independent investigation into Neiva’s communications with the employees found no violation of the University’s sexual misconduct policy. In the lawsuit’s most recent development, on May 3, both parties filed a joint agreement dismissing all claims against the dean.
On July 24, Neiva’s name appeared in a DP article reporting on faculty criticism of the educational direction of the Dental School. Several faculty members referred to the lawsuit, and Neiva’s continued employment at Penn, in the context of broader concerns about the school’s working environment.
Two days later, Wolff sent an email announcing that Neiva was beginning a leave of absence starting the same day, for an “indeterminate time.” According to Penn’s Faculty Handbook, faculty leave must be approved by the school dean and provost.
A month later — shortly before the start of classes for all Dental School students — Wolff notified school community members that Neiva was leaving Penn to “[begin] his next chapter.”
“Dr. Neiva has made significant contributions to the department during his time at the School,” Wolff wrote in the email. “As a master clinician and an opinion leader in implantology and periodontics, Dr. Neiva has truly enjoyed sharing his knowledge with students both didactically and clinically. He also led the department successfully through the pandemic era operations.”
According to the email, the search for a new department chair will start within the coming weeks. Dana Graves, a periodontics professor and vice dean for scholarship and research who briefly served as the Dental School’s interim dean in 2018, is serving as interim department chair.
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