Staff Excellence and Teaching Awards received at the Faculty of Dentistry annual Summer Luncheon

Pure Gold: Staff Excellence Award honours long-time Faculty staff member  

Clinic patient manager Rhea Gold celebrated for 43 years of excellence on the job 

Rhea Gold has seen a lot of change over the past 43 years at the Faculty of Dentistry – a lifetime of change. She’s watched as students became dean, associate dean and assistant dean. She’s played for the Class of 8T0 women’s hockey team. Then there are the changes to dentistry and how it’s taught: the equipment has become more complicated since she started, says Gold, and much of it has gone digital. There are more complicated procedures, like implants, being done. Back in the early 80s the staff was smaller, and there was a different way of organizing the clinical components. 

But if there’s one thing that remains the same, says Gold, winner of this year’s Faculty of Dentistry Staff Excellence Award, it’s the people. 

“The highlight [of my career] for me has been just meeting so many great people here, whether they’re dentists or students.”

Gold began her career at the Faculty in 1976, just two years after completing her dental assistant diploma in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Hired first as a dental assistant, she worked in a program called the Group Practice Unit in Clinic 2, teaching the students four-handed dentistry. 

In 1987, she progressed to Team Leader and supervisor in Clinic 1, where Gold oversaw the dental assistants. She held that position until 2010, when she was offered to fill a maternity leave position as undergraduate clinic manager. Having impressed the clinic director, Luciano Valenzano, she was elevated to patient manager for the undergraduate students in 2011. 

She may have a long history at the Faculty, but Gold is not afraid of change. Over the past year alone she has instituted a number of changes in the Clinic Reception, including the introduction of a patient “greeter” to help manage patient flow and experience.

“I want the patients to feel that when they walk in here, they have a good feeling and want to come back. That the staff are very helpful,” says Gold.

According to her nominators, though, Gold has shown herself to be an exemplar throughout her years at U of T Dentistry. Her patience and ability to calmly listen and diffuse difficult and emotional situations with students, patients and staff was noted by her nominators, as was her professionalism and ability to bring people together on the job.  

Started in 2016, the Staff Excellence Award recognizes a staff member at the Faculty of Dentistry who, as well as excellence on the job, also demonstrates exemplary professionalism, teamwork, and contribution to morale. 

So what is the secret behind her success? While she enjoys “just being positive,” she operates with a fundamental respect for others.

“I put myself in the patients’ shoes,” says Gold. “You get a feeling from a receptionist if they look up and say hello to you, that somebody is helpful. I want to see that all patients are treated with respect.”

Gold was presented with the award at the Faculty of Dentistry Summer Luncheon and Barbeque on June 28, alongside the teaching awards. 

Photo: Rhea Gold, courtesy E. Vollick