Dr. Angela Franklin, DMU President

The Rotary Club of Des Moines met at the Wakonda Club on Thursday, August 30, 2012 with Sharon Vickery presiding.   Monsignor Bognanno opened with prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Four Way Test, and Lynn Hicks introduced numerous guests.    Eric Fogg discussed the upcoming Hands On Book Fest to be held on October 23, 2012.   Dick Reasons invited additional people to the first First Friday Fellowship at his business, CRG, on September 7^th at 7:30 a.m.  His business is located at 2700 Westown Parkway, Suite 200, West Des Moines, IA.  Room is limited- RSVP’s required- contact the RCDM office.

Dr. Gary Hoff introduced our guest speaker, Angela Franklin, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Des Moines University (DMU).   Dr. Franklin, the 15^th president in DMU’s 114 year history, was formerly the executive vice president and provost at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN.  Prior to her role at Meharry, she held several positions at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.  Dr. Franklin is a licensed clinical psychologist, and she earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

Dr. Franklin stated that DMU has revised its mission and vision during strategic planning processes by embracing diversity and fostering cultural competency in the classrooms, in clinical experiences, and across campus.  DMU is committed to the core values of honesty, accountability, collaboration, and inclusiveness as the basic tenets of professional integrity.

DMU’s Mission:  To improve lives in our global community by educating diverse groups of highly competent and compassionate health professionals.

DMU’s Vision:  DMU will be:

·         The leader in innovative health education that promotes lifelong learning

·         A cultivator of distinctive faculty and student researchers who discover and disseminate new knowledge

·         A leader and partner of choice in the delivery of services that enhance health, wellness, and education in our communities

·         A policy consultant and catalyst in healthy community transformation

Dr. Franklin remarked that DMU has recently added the concepts of diversity and inclusiveness to its mission and values.  Because diversity among Americans in terms of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status has never been greater, it was imperative that DMU provide effective, culturally competent care to all.  In health care, cultural competency means that DMU students will be able to treat patients of different backgrounds according to their unique cultural beliefs, needs, customs, and values.

DMU has begun to truly live its mission and vision by embracing diversity and fostering cultural competency in classrooms, in clinical experiences, and across campus.  A very good example of this is DMU’s partnership with Iowa Health Systems (IHS) when it brought La Clinica de la Esperanza to the DMU Clinic this summer.   La Clinica was housed in a building owned by DMU on the south side of Des Moines on Maury Street.  However, its building was declining, and the DMU Clinic on Grand could provide better environment for medical care and better transportation via DART.  La Clinica provides more than 8,000 patients with continuous, comprehensive care in the areas of adult, pediatric, and women’s health care for the Latino population.  While La Clinica is located on the DMU campus it will remain an IHS clinic.

Another example of DMU’s mission is its Winnebago Mobile Unit which delivers care and services to many diverse areas of Iowa, including homeless shelters.

DMU is the nation’s second oldest osteopathic medical school founded in 1898.  Its total enrollment is around 2,000 full and part-time students, 69 percent from out of state.  DMU offers nine graduate degree programs in three colleges:  College of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Podiatric Medicine & Surgery, and the College of Health Sciences.  DMU student pass rates on national exams and board certifications consistently exceed their peers at other medical schools.  DMU has over 11,000 alumni living and working in all 50 states and the world; more than 2,000 DMU alumni live and work in 97 of Iowa’s 99 counties.

Admission to the College of Osteopathic Medicine is very competitive with over 4,000 applicants for the 221 maximum students permitted by the accreditation board.  Tuition, books, room, and board cost over $45,000/year, and the average debt accumulated by the student will be $180,000.

Dr.  Franklin concluded her remarks with the following quote from Dr. Benjamin E. Mays (1894 -1984), former President of Morehouse College:  

“It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is a sin.”