at the Commission of Public Health in Washington, D.C., where she launched innovative partnerships including interdisciplinary collaborations with leading institutions in the nation dedicated to health. She participated in the private and not-for-profit sectors and worked with the U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, serving on multiple boards and as a researcher and consultant advising on regional, national-wide and global initiatives. Franklin was appointed as assistant health commissioner in New York City, the highest ranking dentist position, had dual reporting to the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, the nation's largest urban healthcare system, and was concurrently a clinical professor at New York University. She remains an influential advocate for oral health as integral to overall health. Franklin has served on the board of the Harvard Alumni Association and as president of the Harvard Dental Alumni Association, is the president of Franklin-DeLoach Group, Inc., a boutique research and consulting company. A storyteller and author, she is currently working on a history of her family from its origins in the first colonies in the 1600s, the domestic slave trade, and Louisiana to 20th century migrations. Honors and legacy Franklin is the recipient of the Harvard University Alumni Achievement Award for Excellence in Dental Medicine from the Harvard Alumni Association and the Harvard Black Alumni Society, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Harvard University School of Dental Medicine. A champion for equity and education, Franklin is the first Black woman in Harvard history to have an endowed scholarship for dental education named in her honor. The Freeman, Grant and Franklin Scholarship pays tribute to the legacy of Franklin and the first two Black men who were pioneers in dentistry in the United States and provides crucial support for students from underrepresented minority groups pursuing the DMD degree. The funding of the Freeman, Grant, Franklin Scholarship was initiated by a capstone gift from Colgate-Palmolive in 2021. The namesakes, three prominent Harvard alumni, include Robert Tanner Freeman, who in 1869 became the first Black person in United States history to graduate from a dental school and a graduate of Harvard's first dental class, George Franklin Grant, who graduated in 1870 and became the first Black faculty member at Harvard University and at the dental school in 1884, and Dolores Mercedes Franklin, who became the first Black woman to graduate from HSDM in 1974, more than 100 years after the school's founding,