The 21st annual Glanton Event, presented by Holmes Murphy, held on Wednesday, Nov. 6, celebrated Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences’ commitment to training culturally competent and compassionate health care professionals to serve people and communities of all backgrounds. Community leaders who share in DMU’s mission gathered at The Meadows Events and Conference Center at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, and helped raise $320,627 for the Glanton Fund.
“Health care professionals are needed now more than ever, and it is up to us to continue to foster cultural humility among all DMU students, current, past and future,” says Angela L. Walker Franklin, Ph.D., CEO and president of DMU. “We thank the donors and leaders who join us in dismantling the health care systems that cause disparities and removing the obstacles that hinder inclusion and diversity.”
A compelling lineup of speakers shared inspiring stories from their time at DMU and how they have embodied the spirit of the Glanton Fund in work outside of the classroom and in their careers. Past Glanton scholarship recipient Ruffin Tchakounte, D.O.’22, M.S.A.’18, a resident physician at UnityPoint Health in Des Moines, expressed that his duty as a Glanton recipient is to pay it forward. “I have the challenge of changing the narrative we see in health care and help produce more doctors that look like me to serve patients that look like me,” Tchakounte says. “That’s the purpose of this scholarship — to lift the voices of those who are underrepresented, to break down barriers and to create trailblazers.”
Current Glanton scholarship recipient Jayce Clark, D.O. Class of 2027, spoke about his experience with the Robert A. Winn Clinical Investigator Pathway Program this past summer. He was placed at the University of Louisville under the mentorship of In Kim, M.D., M.B.A. “From this experience, I carry forward a deep conviction: we must stop trying to be the voice for underserved communities,” Clark says. “These communities already have a voice. Our job is to listen, to amplify and to ensure their stories and needs are heard and acted upon.”
Keynote speaker Lisa Green, D.O.’91, M.P.H., a DMU alumna and co-founder and CEO of Family Christian Health Center in Harvey, Illinois, shared the importance of how focusing on one “dot” at a time can make a difference in communities. “When you treat people with dignity and respect, they will come. When you meet people where they are at, you can help them get to where they need to be. When you take one dot and connect it with all the other dots in the world, that’s how you change a community and eventually a nation,” Green says. “I am so impressed to see where the leadership at DMU has taken the university and taken the community because when you do that, that’s how you take the nation. And if not us at DMU, then who?”
The Glanton Fund, founded in 2004, is named in honor of the late Judge Luther Glanton Jr., the first Black judge in Iowa, and Willie Stevenson Glanton, the first Black female assistant county attorney. The fund directly impacts DMU students by fostering diversity initiatives across campus and supporting scholarships for students with significant financial need.
Save the date for the Glanton Event 2025, which will take place Oct. 22, 2025, at The Meadows Events and Conference Center at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa.
