2021 inductees to Iowa Business Hall of Fame are announced
Angela L. Walker Franklin, a 1981 Furman University alumna and president of Des Moines University, has been inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame. She and two other inductees were honored on May 4 for their outstanding contributions to the development and enhancement of the state’s business climate. The news appeared in the Business Record.
Franklin, a native of McCormick, South Carolina, is a Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude graduate of Furman. A licensed clinical psychologist, she completed her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Emory University, followed by a year-long clinical internship at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Des Moines University’s 15th president (2011), Franklin became the first African American woman to lead a standalone medical/health sciences university.
Having worked in higher education for more than 25 years, Franklin was previously executive vice president and provost at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, where she oversaw academic and administrative departments. She held a professorship in Meharry’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
She is author of “An Unconventional Journey….. An Unlikely Choice” and “Now is the Time, Des Moines is the Place,” which chronicles a 100-plus year history of training health care professionals.
See a related Furman News story here.