Ralitsa Akins, M.D., Ph.D., will join Des Moines University as provost on May 1. She currently serves as the associate dean of faculty affairs at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine in Spokane, WA.
“Dr. Akins brings a compelling mix of educational, administrative, scholarly and health sciences experience to her role in academic leadership at DMU,” says DMU President and CEO Angela Walker Franklin, Ph.D. “Dr. Akins is a respected administrator and prolific scholar who selflessly focuses on outcomes and impact. She will help us reach the goals we have laid out for creating more opportunities for innovative approaches to teaching and learning, interdisciplinary collaboration among our colleges and developing a unified academic vision.”
Dr. Akins holds a M.D. from the Medical University in Varna, Bulgaria, where she also served as a staff surgeon and assistant professor in family medicine. She moved to the United States in 2001 and built her career as an educator and administrator. She earned her Ph.D. in educational administration from Texas A&M University and later joined Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, where she held positions as associate professor in the departments of medical education, anesthesiology and pediatrics. She also served as the associate director of the ATACS Center – Advanced Teaching and Assessment in Clinical Simulation.
Her earlier experiences include various faculty and administrative appointments as well as diverse committee service roles at SUNY Upstate Medical University College of Medicine and California Northstate University College of Medicine. At that time she achieved the rank of professor, chaired the curriculum committee and a committee on the meaning, quality and integrity of the degrees as part of reaccreditation (WACS/WSCUC).
