WEST DES MOINES, IOWA (08/25/2025) — UnityPoint Health will be the presenting sponsor for the 2025 Glanton Event on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, at The Meadows Event Center in Altoona, Iowa, advancing Des Moines University (DMU) Medicine and Health Sciences' mission to prepare a health-care workforce that meets the needs of all communities.
UnityPoint Health's sponsorship reflects its systemwide commitment to improving health outcomes, enhancing access, and addressing disparities in care across the communities it serves.
"UnityPoint Health and Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences share a commitment to providing exceptional health-care to our communities, especially as it relates to improving access," says UnityPoint Health's President and CEO Scott Kizer. "This event celebrates current and future health care practitioners and provides a path for students to continue their education so they can serve their communities now and in the future.
This year's program will feature a keynote address by Gregory Johnson MD SFHM FAAFP FACP, chief medical officer at UnityPoint Health. Johnson has more than fifteen years of clinical and executive experience, including leadership roles in health equity, impact, and engagement, along with patient safety and care transformation. He oversees the clinical enterprise for seventeen UnityPoint acute-care hospitals and nineteen rural affiliates.
Johnson's talk, Watchfulness with Purpose: Strengthening Health for All, will explore the importance of students and future practitioners gathering and using data, engaging local organizations and community members to ensure that community health needs are identified and addressed.
"When we build care models that center communities with the most challenges, whether rural communities, veterans or low-income neighborhoods, we not only achieve fairness - we improve clinical outcomes and reduce waste," Johson says.
"UnityPoint Health's partnership helps us prepare future health professionals who are equipped to deliver care that truly meets people where they are," says Angela L Walker Franklin PhD, DMU president and CEO. "Their investment in the Glanton Fund translates directly into opportunities for students and better health outcomes for the communities our graduates will one day serve."
The Glanton Fund was established in 2004 to honor the contributions of the late Judge Luther T Glanton and Willie Stevenson Glanton. The fund generates scholarships for promising students to attend DMU and supports university programming that fosters cultural competency and community engagement.
Since its inception, the fund has provided more than $4 million in scholarships and programming. The Glanton Event is the primary fundraiser supporting this vital work.
Located in West Des Moines, part of Iowa's capital metro, Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences offers ten graduate-level professional degree programs in anatomy, biomedical sciences, health-care administration, occupational therapy, osteopathic medicine, physical therapy, physician-assistant studies, podiatric medicine, and public health. Founded in 1898, the institution offers superior academics in a collaborative environment. DMU students' scores on national examinations, pass-rates on board certifications, and match-rates for medical residency programs are consistently higher than national averages and rates at peer institutions.
