Dolores Mercedes Franklin

Dolores Mercedes Franklin is an American dentist. In 1974, Franklin became the first African American woman to graduate from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM). She was also the first woman dean at college of dentistry at New York University (NYU).

Biography

Franklin graduated from Barnard College in 1970 and went on to earn a masters in public health from Columbia University in 1974.[1] That same year, she earned her doctorate in dental medicine from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM), becoming the first African American woman to earn that degree.[1][2]

Franklin started working at the New Jersey Dental Group, leaving in 1975 to become an assistant dean at the college of dentistry at New York University (NYU).[1] She was the first woman to be promoted as a dean at the school.[3]

Franklin became the dental director at Cook-Waite Laboratories Inc. in 1979, leaving NYU.[4][1] In 1985, she started working as the Dental Coordinator for the Commission of Public Health in Washington, D.C.[1] She went on to work at the U.S. Department of Labor as a consultant and researcher.[5] Franklin also worked at Sterling Drug, Inc. and at Colgate-Palmolive.[6]

A scholarship named after her and two other black graduates of HSDM, The Freeman, Grant and Franklin Scholarship, provides funds for minority students to study dentistry.[7]

References
  1. Webster, Raymond B. (1999). African American Firsts in Science & Technology. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-7876-3876-4. OCLC 41238505 – via Internet Archive.
  2. "50 Leaders of the Future". Ebony. 33 (10): 102. August 1978.
  3. "Female Dentists". The Ottawa Citizen. 1979-04-21. p. 70. Retrieved 2020-07-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "People". Jet. 57 (13): 21. 13 December 1979.
  5. "Dolores Mercedes Franklin, DMD, Class of 1974 (First African American Woman to Graduate from HSDM)". Perspectives Of Change. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  6. "Gift Kicks Off the Freeman, Grant, Franklin Scholarship". Harvard School of Dental Medicine. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  7. "Throwing Down the Gauntlet: A Harvard Trailblazer's Look Beyond the Ivy | Freeman, Grant, and Franklin Scholarship". Harvard School of Dental Medicine. April 2019. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
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