Biographical Sketch of Interim Provost Jerold S. Goldberg
Jerold S. Goldberg, dean of Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine, was named interim provost, the university's chief academic officer, August 1, 2007.
Goldberg temporarily replaces outgoing Provost John L. Anderson, who left Case Western Reserve University at the end of July to become president of Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
A 1970 alumnus of the School of Dental Medicine, Goldberg joined the Case Western Reserve University faculty in 1974.
Goldberg arrived at Case after completing a dental internship at Newark Beth Israel Hospital in New Jersey and a three-year oral surgery residency at University Hospitals of Cleveland. Prior to becoming the School of Dental Medicine's dean in 1997, Goldberg served as interim dean and chair of the school's oral and maxillofacial surgery department, a position he had held since 1985.
As dean, Goldberg initiated the school's rollout of a new, theme-based and active learning curriculum (2006). The curriculum was designed to establish a "culture of inquiry" and to engage students in the constant pursuit of knowledge and life-long learning. Students experience a more hands-on dental experiences from the first day of class.
He also spearheaded the creation of the country's first dental medicine program to offer a dual D.M.D.-M.D. degree for students pursuing studies to become general dentists. The program, in partnership with the School of Medicine, is patterned after the kind of cross medical-dental training that oral surgeons receive during their residencies following their general dental school training. The program leads to eligibility for dental licensure on completion of the program as well as eligibility for medical licensure after finishing a medical residency.
Goldberg has previously served the university in other leadership roles including as the interim dean of the School of Medicine in 2002-2003. In addition to his teaching and administrative duties for the university, Goldberg, actively participates in international volunteer work that has taken him to Asia and South America and Eastern Europe. He co-founded the Partnership of Hope in 1993. Through the nonprofit organization, health care professionals train medical personnel and perform reconstructive facial surgeries. In 2002, Goldberg was knighted by the president of Lithuania for his efforts there.
In 2006, Goldberg's work to make changes in dental education and improve the public's health through better oral health care caught the attention of the Santa Fe Group of New Mexico, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in the late 1990s by eight health profession leaders concerned about oral health. The group invited Goldberg to join in nationwide initiatives that link local leaders to a network of social changers around the U.S. to tackle some of the country's major health problems. The group's leaders began "out of the box" thinking in response to the first Surgeon General's Report on Oral Health in 2000 that recognized a "silent epidemic" in the link between oral health diseases and systemic health problems like heart disease and diabetes.