What are the traits, talents and tools that tomorrow’s health care leaders must possess? We asked some tried-and-true chiefs for their must-haves.

The inauguration of DMU’s new president, Angela Walker Franklin, Ph.D., was a “seminal moment” in the University’s history and future that featured formalities, festivities, a fun run and a 50-passenger bus that trekked more than 1,100 miles to be part of the occasion.

Todd Capistrant, D.O.’97, grew up enthralled by the great outdoors and American author Jack London’s stories of survival. Still, that doesn’t fully explain why he and his wife, Anne – who grew up terrified of canines – to respond to a classified ad about a sled dog team for sale.

A head-on, 60-mile-per-hour collision left 12-year-old Ashlee Mickle with hip and pelvis injuries; her mother with a broken neck; and her father with bruised organs and many crushed bones. As bad as all that was, though, Ashlee’s brother, Aaron, suffered the worst.

Every fall in Des Moines a battle rages between health care and the law, but we’re not talking in court. The annual Malpractice Bowl lets DMU students and Drake University law students take it out on the gridiron. DMU got the ball rolling in 1998.

David Lans, D.O.’81, always knew he would follow his father, Allan Lans, D.O.’58, into medicine, but his mother, Joan, inspired his love of music, art and the humanities. The two alumni have created a scholarship that memorializes Mrs. Lans, celebrates her influence and will soon benefit DMU students.