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Jerold Goldberg, dean of the CWRU School of Dentistry, is spending
the summer getting used to new titles. While people may jest and
call him "Dr. Double-dean Goldberg" for his additional responsibilities
as interim dean of the School of Medicine, he now hears a few
addressing him as "Sir Dr. Double Dean Goldberg."
Sir? 
During an annual humanitarian trip with Partnership in Hope to
Lithuania in June, the traditional courtesy visit with President
Valdas Adamkus at his palace in the capital of Vilnius, yielded
a surprise for Goldberg.
President Adamkus conferred upon Goldberg the Cross of the Knight
of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. He conferred
upon Goldberg the Cross of the Knight medal for his work in bringing
hope of a normal life to many Lithuanians who had suffered from
birth defects, cleft lips and palates or traumas that required
the skills of an oral and maxillofacial surgeon to correct them.
Goldberg's citation reads ". . . for long-standing assistance
in providing medical and humanitarian support to Lithuanian health
care institutions."
Just days after his return to campus, Goldberg humbly commented,
"I was surprised and honored."
According to Gintautas Sabataitis, the administrator and cofounder
of Partnership in Hope, Goldberg is only the second medical provider
to receive this honor.
Since 1993, Partnership in Hope has visited Lithuania. John DiStefano,
a clinical professor who has a private practice in Parma Heights,
and Goldberg helped to establish the nonprofit organization in
1995 to provide oral and maxillofacial surgery to people in need.
Teams of volunteer medical personnel from CWRU, University Hospitals
of Cleveland, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and the Cleveland
community have provided help to more than 120 people since the
inception of the program.
In the first years of the program, Partnership in Hope volunteered
in Vilnius, but in later years traveled on medical missions to
Klaipeda. Seeing a need for help beyond the annual visits, Goldberg
has established teleconferencing with the hospital in Klaipeda
to see patients before, during and after surgery.
The teleconferencing also enables the medical team to follow
up on patients they have operated on during missions to the country
and care for them after the volunteers return to the United States.
A special DiStefano/Goldberg unit has become an integral part
of the hospital.
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