Cataldo Leone has had several administrative duties in his 22-year BU career, which finds him now as interim dean of the Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Photo courtesy Goldman School of Dental Medicine

University News

Cataldo Leone, School of Dental Medicine Veteran, to Be Interim Dean

National search to launch for retiring Dean Jeffrey Hutter’s permanent replacement

Cataldo Leone, a veteran researcher in periodontal disease at Boston University’s Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine and also an expert on education methods and curriculum design, will be the school’s interim dean.

Leone assumes the post April 1, replacing SDM Dean Jeffrey Hutter, who is retiring March 31. The Goldman School, which has had only three deans in its almost 60-year history, will conduct a national search, led by Jean Morrison, BU provost and chief academic officer, for a permanent dean. 

Leone joined the SDM faculty in 1999 as an associate professor of periodontology and oral biology and was promoted to full professor in 2006. 

“Dr. Leone has had substantial administrative experience at the dental school and nationally, and as recent chair of the BU Faculty Council, is well known on the Charles River Campus, as well,” says Karen Antman, dean of the School of Medicine and provost of the Medical Campus.

In announcing the appointment, Antman and Morrison noted Leone’s extensive administrative experience at the University. He was appointed SDM assistant dean for academic affairs in 2007 and associate dean in 2008. 

“Nationally, Dr. Leone has served as an accreditation site visitor since 2014 and on the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations,” their announcement said. “He was also elected to the Commission on Dental Accreditation for a 2022–2026 term.”

Leone is a fellow in the American College of Dentists. His honors include the BU Chapter of the American Student Dental Association’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Dedication and Service to Dental Students and Organized Dentistry, and the Spencer N. Frankl Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Before coming to BU, Leone taught at the University of Florida and at Tufts University. He earned his doctorate in dental medicine from the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine in 1983. He completed a certificate of advanced graduate studies in periodontology in 1987, and received a doctorate of medical sciences in oral biology in 1989 from Harvard University.

His research interests include salivary proteins and immune mechanisms in periodontal disease. 

Morrison said she will announce a search advisory committee in the coming weeks for a permanent dean for SDM, which has more than 800 students and 300 faculty, who, in addition to engaging in education, serve more than 30,000 patients annually.

“We want to thank both Dr. Leone for his willingness to serve during this time of transition and Dean Hutter for his 12-plus years of exemplary leadership and his distinguished service to the nation as an officer in the US Navy,” Morrison and Antman said in their announcement. As a young dentist, Hutter was stationed with the Naval Dental Center Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, and he and his wife are retiring to the Aloha State.

He was just the third dean in SDM’s almost six-decade history, named to the post in 2007. He presided over a three-year, $112 million renovation of the school’s 100 East Newton Street building, to be finished this summer. He also oversaw the expansion of “digital dentistry”—smart technologies that curtail both the number of visits to the dentist and time in the chair during procedures.