Angela Franklin believes in remaining open to unexpected opportunities. 

It’s been a staple of her career. She planned to become a clinical psychologist and haveher own mental health practice. After completing her undergraduate degree from Furman University and her doctorate in clinical psychology at Emory University, she took a position as an assistant professor of psychiatry at Morehouse School of Medicine. 

The position offered her the chance to build her practice, but she quickly learned she loved teaching more than she expected. Her career in higher education eventually led her to become Des Moines University’s first female president in 2011. 

“I always tell people to be open to opportunities. Don’t put yourself in a box,” Franklin said. “The more you learn, the more you know about what you’re good at. I always encourage people to sort of go along with that train of opportunity and get on and off as you so desire.” 

The Business Record named Franklin the 2025 Women of Influence Alum of the Year, an annual award launched in 2024 to celebrate an honoree who has made an impact since they were named a Woman of Influence. She was originally honored in 2014. BPC chair Connie Wimer launched the annual program in 2000 to recognize women who were making a difference in the community but were seldom recognized. All those who’ve received the award in the past were invited to nominate fellow alumni.

Franklin was nominated by 2021 Woman of Influence Janice Lane Schroeder. 

“Dr. Franklin and her team have been intentional in their curriculum to ensure students are skilled and equipped to work with the most complex cases in a culturally responsive and competent manner,” Schroeder said. “She has proven her commitment to our state and community by launching a campaign to build a new campus in West Des Moines.”

Franklin recently sat down with Fearless to talk about her career, believing in yourself and creating a lasting impact. 

The following Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

How would you describe yourself as a leader? 

My style is more collaborative. I have a very flat organizational structure, which was the way I thought about bringing leadership to DMU. I find good people to lead those areas within the organization. To be a leader that’s collaborative, you have to know how to be a leader of leaders. Each one is empowered to do their job, and I give them the latitude to do that. It’s an empowering approach to leadership but it’s collaborative, because everyone sits around this table and they have to know and value the contribution everybody else makes. So that means relationships with each other are also as important as a relationship with me. I spend a lot of time with my people. There’s one-on-one time with everyone every other week, and then there’s weekly meetings with the whole group. Because of that dynamic, we have relationships with each other that when there’s a need to make a decision about what we need to do, we all know each other. We work collaboratively. We all have to get on board and in sync and find common ground. You can’t do that if you don’t have a relationship already established. 

What is the hardest lesson you’ve had to learn in your career? 

I think coming here and not, on the surface, knowing whether or not they would really support me as the first woman president. I doubted in the beginning whether they would even hire me, because I’ve been in some other searches and I’m sort of strung along in the process so they can say they had a diverse pool. So I had this doubt, and I think a lot of women have this sense of, “Am I ever going to be good enough to get the job?” I had my own doubts, but what I didn’t know is that the board that offered me the job was worried about whether or not I would accept the offer. They thought I would not want to come to a place that I’ve never been in that kind of environment, that maybe I would have been afraid that they would not accept me. I had to learn that while I’m doubting over here that you would ever offer the job to me, I had no idea they were doubting that I would accept. All of a sudden I realized that I’ve been probably doing more harm to myself in terms of doubting my abilities. I checked all the boxes for such a role as this, but I still wondered and doubted.

Then the next lesson was to show more of who I am to the people in a way that they can receive it, as opposed to trying to figure out what to do with the impressions that they had of me. How do you then make yourself known to them, not knowing what they were looking for? I think what I could have done sooner is maybe spend a little bit more time letting people get to know me and break down those impressions that they had. Eventually, it all came to pass that they realized, “Oh, she’s not anything like we thought.” 

How do you navigate someone making assumptions about you? 

It’s almost impossible to go back and figure out how to do that. Every organization with a new leader is going to wonder and question, “Are they going to be what we think?” I have a crystal elephant on my table that I use as the “elephant in the room.” There’s always going to be an elephant in the room. There’s going to be someone thinking something that you don’t quite know, and you may hear about it later. If I had an elephant in the room earlier, I might have picked up on some things sooner. Bringing the elephant actually into the room was me giving people permission to tell me things that may be hard to say. People touch or grab the elephant and hold it and say, “OK, I need to say something.” You have to find ways to engage with your people. 

What advice do you wish someone had given you sooner in your career? 

My primary mentor, who was the president of the medical school where I started, told me something that led me to being recruited here that always resonates with me. If someone had said this to me early on, I might not have doubted myself as much as I did along the way. I was in a search for a presidency prior to coming to Des Moines University. For presidential searches, there are search firms that handle searches around the country, and they share credentials of candidates. So people may know of you from another search. In the search prior to DMU, I had that sense of doubt. I was one of the final two for the presidency. They seemed to be very excited about my candidacy. I thought, “I’m close to getting this job.” And then things lagged, and I thought, “Why are they not making a decision?” 

My mentor said to me, “You should never have to play second fiddle to anyone, and if you’re sensing that they’re going to go with the other candidate and maybe you’re the backup plan in case they say no, withdraw from the search. You should go where you’re wanted. If you’re not going to be their first choice, do you really want to work in an environment where you might be the second choice?” So I withdrew from the search. The day after, I got a phone call from the same search firm but a different consultant who was handling the DMU search. This person said, “We’ve been watching you in the search. We have the perfect job for you, and there’s an organization that would be very interested in talking with you.” You have to follow the advice of those who know you best and not sell yourself short thinking, “I’ll just keep pursuing something that maybe I’m not the best choice for the job.” I continue to be at this institution where I’ve had the support I couldn’t have imagined in other places.

What advice would you give to early career women who hope one day to be influential? 

Look within. So many times we’re chasing role models, ideas, models of influence and leadership out there. You may think, “I want to be like that one day,” but those are kind of surface. I see young women trying to be that image of what they think is right for them, and it’s kind of following a model that may not necessarily be who they really are. Don’t be surface. Go deep. You can put on all the trappings of what you want to look like, but look within first. Everyone brings different levels of skills and strengths to a role and opportunity. We’re all very unique. Don’t sell yourself short trying to be something that you’re not. There’s a lot of good in all of us, so you have to figure out what that is. What is it that I want to be known for? Find your own internal passion, and then the opportunity presents itself based on the fact that you are passionate about these things. 

How can today’s leaders help prepare the next generation of women leaders who are coming up after them? 

One thing that happened to me coming along was that there were very few female college presidents that I could find as a mentor, and I was desperately looking for someone. I remember saying, “Gosh, if I ever got there, I’d make myself available to other women who have aspirations for leadership.” Not just higher ed, but any opportunity that I could help someone else because that was missing for me. I had a lot of male mentors and they all stepped in and because of them, I’m where I am today. But I didn’t ever have a female college president to help me. So I make myself available to other women. I think every other female leader should do the same thing. That’s why I love the Women of Influence program so much. I love what Connie Wimer has done in creating a program like this and to continue to allow women to find their way. 

How has your confidence in yourself as a professional developed and what shaped that confidence? 

Primarily growing up in the South, being one of two daughters in a business family. Growing up in the South and being a woman of color in a small town, you always had to go over and beyond. You always had to be better and check all the boxes. Growing up in that environment, and in a Jim Crow South, where you’re perceived to not ever be good enough, I was always trying to break the glass ceiling and kind of prove people wrong. A lot of my confidence comes from parents who instilled in me this view that I’m just as good if not better. When you get that imprinted as a kid, you take that with you. Not everyone has parents that would or could do that. It may be a school teacher that sees something in you. It’s really important to make sure you have that message, that imprinting, that says you can do it. If parents didn’t put it there, your schoolteachers didn’t put it there, you have to put it there for yourself. 

What are you most proud of yourself for in your career and life? 

I’m most proud of my children, where they are in their career journeys, the imprinting that I put on them. They didn’t panic when they got a curve ball and challenges happened. I have these three young men with a husband and we poured everything we had into them to give them every opportunity to live their life in a way that would make us all proud. They’re out there making it work and pursuing things in a way that makes me proud. We’re empty-nesters now, and now we have our granddaughter and I get to pour into this little girl all that I can. There’s a lot of pride that I have with family. All three of my sons are pursuing doctorate degrees. I’m really excited for them and where they go. 

In terms of my career, I think building the West Des Moines campus. I didn’t come to Des Moines University thinking I would do this. I actually thought I would come for a while and then move on. But I came here and I’ve stayed for all these many years because there’s always the next thing to do. I have a board that says, “We want you to stay and do that and do this.” It’s hard to be in an environment, especially higher ed being in the crosshairs so much today, to not realize the value that comes from having a board that supports you and a campus community that’s thriving. 

We bought 88 acres of farmland in West Des Moines and built a whole new campus. It happened almost in jest, because we were struggling with the downtown campus being landlocked. Every president of any enterprise wants to figure out how to grow. Trying to figure out what to do with that downtown location became a challenge for me, and I thought, “Well, if we can’t grow, then maybe that means it’s my time to move on.” In a conversation with board leadership, the question came up. I jokingly said, “I wish we could just pick this place up and put it somewhere else where we would have more room to grow.” So we probably needed to find some land somewhere so that we could grow the university. I thought we’d look for some land and then I’d hand it off to the next president and they could do it. One of my board members said, “No, let’s pursue land, and you stay and build the campus because we trust your leadership. We believe in your vision.” 

What are you most excited about for the future? 

Now that we’ve come here, we have the campus we left behind, and so it’s always something new and exciting. Now that we’re settled in here, we have met and surpassed accreditation standards. We have our students doing exceptionally well. We have a wonderful team of people, wonderful deans, wonderful faculty who do great work. So now, what do we do with that campus we left behind? So we’ve just launched the rebranding of that location, so there’s considerable excitement now. We’re rebranding that as DMU 32, a health and business complex. We have an opportunity to partner with the community on our regional simulation center. We knew we were experts in how to create simulated learning experiences for clinic students, that we’ve heard that others don’t necessarily have the capability or the technology and resources to stay current. We heard from community college presidents and others that they can’t keep up. Now we’re one of the very few health sciences universities certified in our simulation center. We took the part of the building where we did simulation and created a model for simulated learning for younger learners, like high school kids and community college kids and other programs out there. We have a clinic there that’s going to continue to be of service to patients. Our students go there for rotations. There’s a little event center there. We have ideas about research opportunities and other ways to partner.