Kelly Jordan-Sciutto

Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, Professor in the School of Dental Medicine, began her tenure as Penn’s inaugural Vice Provost for Graduate Education on July 1, 2025.

She is a longtime leader in graduate education at Penn, serving from 2017-2025 as Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Director of Biomedical Graduate Studies in the Perelman School of Medicine, which encompasses 1100 graduate students and 850 faculty members across seven Penn Schools and seven distinct graduate groups. She has taught at Penn since 2001 and has served as Secretary of the Faculty Senate; Chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Students and Educational Policy and the Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Development, Diversity, and Equity; Associate Dean for Organizational Effectiveness and Chair of the Department of Pathology in the School of Dental Medicine; and Director of Post-Baccalaureate Research Education in the Perelman School of Medicine, among other roles.

She received the 2024 Lifetime Service Award and 2023 Outstanding Service and Support Award from the Society on NeuroImmune Pharmacology and has participated in the Provost’s Leadership Academy and Penn Fellows Program, which provide leadership training to select Penn faculty members, as well as the Management Development Program of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education. Her research focuses on the cellular and molecular responses to inflammation in the brain, especially how these mechanisms can be used therapeutically to advance new treatments for preventing cognitive changes in people with HIV, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease. She received a PhD from Thomas Jefferson University and a BS from Villanova University.