A small-town girl from South Carolina with a collection of angels, a love of music and a weakness for dark chocolate, President Franklin shares some fun facts and perspectives in this question-and-answer session.

Tafline Arbor digs into the body’s structure, literally, by combining paleontology and anatomy. Not many people can claim a paleoanthropological site in South Africa as their second home, but for Tafline C. Arbor,Ph.D., it’s true.

Some of the athletes wore mullet hairstyles; others, domino inspired uniforms or Hawaiian shirts and leis. They all ducked, dived and hit hard to help a good cause at DMU’s second annual Dodgeball Derby. DMU’s American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine Club (AAPSM) sponsored the Feb. 19 derby to raise money for See-Us Run Des Moines.

The Iowa Psychological Association (IPA) named Des Moines University the 2010 Iowa Psychologically Healthy Workplace. Presented last October at the association’s fall conference, the award is given annually to recognize an Iowa organization that promotes a healthy work-life balance and provides a healthy work environment for employees.

He has served in the U.S. House of Representatives, taught on the faculty at Princeton and Harvard and, in 2009, was appointed by President Barack Obama as the ninth chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. On May 28, Jim Leach will be the keynote speaker at DMU’s commencement.

David Vellinga, M.H.A., president and chief executive officer of Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines since 1998, was appointed to the Des Moines University board of trustees during the board’s December meeting. Vellinga has also been CEO of Mercy Health Network since 2000.

A recent study of DMU’s economic impact on Polk, Warren and Dallas counties and on the state reveals that the University generates some nicely hefty benefits.

J. Leonard Azneer’s 22-year tenure as DMU’s president was marked by a new campus location, two new colleges, several new facilities and a controversial conclusion.