McNeil Appointed Chair of Community Dentistry

Daniel McNeil
A member of the American Dental Education Association, the American Psychological Association, the International Association for Dental Research, and a Fellow of the American Association of Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research, McNeil has an impressively long list of published research in books, articles and manuals.

On July 1, Daniel W. McNeil, Ph.D., joins the UF College of Dentistry as a professor and chair of the UF Department of Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science; he has also been appointed the Parker E. Mahan Endowed Professor.

McNeil will devote most of his time to administration of the department. He will also be involved in teaching for the predoctoral and advanced education classes in UFCD and other health colleges, as well as continuing his research activities in behavioral dentistry, pain and health.

In 1977, McNeil earned his bachelor’s in interdisciplinary psychology from the University of Alabama where he also earned his masters (1980) and his doctorate (1982), both in clinical psychology. Early in his career, he was at UF as a trainee for four years. He was a clinical psychology intern at UF Shands and the Gainesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1981-1982. Thereafter, from 1982 through 1985, he was involved with UFCD in a behavioral dentistry/medicine postdoctoral fellowship.

“I am very pleased that he will bring his expertise and experiences to his leadership of the Department of Community and Behavioral Science. I look forward to welcoming him back to the Gator Nation and know he will be an asset to the college and the university,” said A. Isabel Garcia, D.D.S., M.P.H., dean.

After his fellowship at UF, McNeil’s first academic positions were in Oklahoma, as a faculty member at Oklahoma State University and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry. In 1994 he joined the faculty of West Virginia University in Morgantown where he is currently an Eberly Distinguished Professor, with faculty appointments in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Dental Public Health and Professional Practice.

A member of the American Dental Education Association, the American Psychological Association, the International Association for Dental Research, and a Fellow of the American Association of Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research, McNeil has an impressively long list of published research in books, articles and manuals. A former Fulbright fellow, he received the Distinguished Scientist Award in 2021 for Behavioral, Epidemiologic and Health Services Research from the International Association for Dental Research.

“I am immensely grateful to Joseph Riley, Ph.D., our associate dean for faculty affairs and member of CDBS, who has served as interim chair of the department since September 2021. By the time Dr. McNeil joins us, Dr. Riley will have led the department for 10 months and has ensured that the unique and critical work of the department continued uninterrupted while also balancing his faculty affairs role,” Garcia said.