Distinguished Alumni Award Winner Profile

As section chief and director of dental education at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, Hayley Harvey (94DDS, 96MS) has been a champion for increasing access to dental care and improving the oral health of underserved populations.

A native of Detroit, Michigan, and daughter of an Army veteran, Harvey came to the University of Iowa and discovered a passion for improving oral health and access to care for at-risk and rural populations. After earning two degrees from Iowa, Harvey—who served for a decade in the Army National Guard—practiced dentistry and later became the dental director for Baldwin Family Health Care. Her clinic provided dental care to at-risk populations in Baldwin, Michigan, which resides in one of the poorest counties in the state.

She returned to the Hawkeye state as the public health dental director for the Iowa Department of Public Health, which then led her to a position at Broadlawns Medical Center. Harvey has helped Broadlawns establish a new $24 million facility with 22 operatories—six of which are for extramural rotations of University of Iowa dental students. Through her work at Broadlawns, she ensures that future generations of dentists will have a solid understanding of the dental and health disparities facing Iowa's low-income populations.

Harvey is a wife and mother of two daughters, Hannah and Hadley. She is active in many community organizations and serves on the Mid-Iowa Health Foundation Board of Directors. In 2019, Harvey was awarded the University of Iowa Dental Alumni Service Recognition of the Year honor.

Peter Damiano (82BS, 86DDS), one of Harvey's professors from her time at the UI College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics, says: "She represents all that we would want in a Distinguished Alumni Service Award recipient: passion for her field, a lifetime commitment to using her UI education to help those less fortunate, and a continuing role in educating Iowa's students."