Dolores Mercedes Franklin is an American dentist, health policy advocate, and author. She was the first African American woman to graduate from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1974. Franklin became the highest ranking dentist executive at Sterling Drug, the first woman and first Black person in the United States to do so at a Fortune 500 company. She was also the first woman and first Black person to hold a dean's level position at New York University College of Dentistry, the nation's largest dental school at a major university, making her the first woman and first Black person from Harvard to become a dental school dean in the United States. Franklin is also a consultant and clinical professor. Biography Franklin graduated from Barnard College in 1970. She earned her Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) degree from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) in 1974, becoming the first African American woman, and first woman of color, to earn a Harvard DMD degree as well as one of the first five women since the school's founding more than 100 years before. In the same year, she earned her M.P.H. degree from Columbia University in a joint degree program. Franklin began her career as dental director at the New Jersey Dental Group and a consultant to the Colgate-Palmolive Company. She left the group practice in 1975 for New York University College of Dentistry, the largest U.S. dental school, and at the age of 28, she was appointed Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, (and Admissions later). She was the first woman and the first Black dean at New York University's dental school, making her, at the same time, the first woman and first Black person from Harvard to hold a dean's level position at any dental school in the United States. In 1979, Franklin became the first woman and first Black person to hold the highest ranking dentist executive position in a Fortune 500 company, when she was appointed at Sterling Drug, Inc., a global pharmaceutical company, to head Professional Services and Research at Cook-Waite Laboratories. She authored and completely updated the Cook-Waite textbook, Manual of Local Anesthesia in Dentistry, which had last been updated three decades earlier. The book was widely used in U.S. dental schools. Franklin headed the National Dental Program at Job Corps, operated in 43 states, primarily by major companies, and was an oral health policy leader