Angela Mickens was always aware of the effect she had on her patients of color. Every time she walked into a patient room or a surgical suite, the patient would lock in on her in a sea of white faces and visibly sag with relief.
As a Black woman, Mickens knows all too well of the fear and uncertainly that Black and brown individuals can face when navigating the health care system. In her more than 25 years of working in hospital operating rooms, she made a point to be a comforting presence for patients of color and to give them a voice in a situation where many felt they had no control.
After years of seeing that uncertainty firsthand, the 52-year-old Des Moines native has channeled her passion for helping those patients to efforts outside the operating room, becoming a prominent advocate for improved health outcomes for women of color in the metro.
This work is why Mickens is one of the Des Moines Register’s People to Watch in 2024.
“It’s my vocation. Wholeheartedly, it’s my vocation,” she said.
Mickens’ efforts first started in March 2020, when the pandemic arrived in Iowa and she witnessed the disproportionate impact that Black and brown communities felt from the virus. Nationwide, Black Americans’ mortality rate from COVID-19 in 2020 was double that of white individuals, according to researchers.
Widespread misinformation meant many Black community members were hesitant to get the new vaccine, so Mickens posted a photo of her vaccination on Facebook to encourage others to do the same. Then, she started hosting COVID-19 vaccine clinics for the congregation at Corinthian Baptist Church in Des Moines, where Mickens serves as a deaconess.
Still, she believed more needed to be done to help other Black women.
Nationally, Black women are three times more likely than white women to die from childbirth or other pregnancy-related causes. They are more likely to die from breast cancer. They are twice as likely to develop diabetes and are twice as likely to have uncontrolled blood pressure, increasing their risk for cardiovascular disease or stroke.
That’s why she joined Black Women 4 Healthy Living, a local organization focused on addressing health disparities faced by Black women.
Since then, she has been a significant figure in that organization’s outreach. According to other community activists who work closely with her on these efforts, Mickens is on the precipice of making notable change in the health of Black women across the Des Moines metro.
“She’s leading change. She isn’t looking for change, she’s leading change and that’s what makes her so different,” said Leslie Schaffer, executive director of the northern and central Iowa chapter of the American Red Cross.
Since childhood, Angela Mickens knew she wanted to help care for others
Mickens was born in Des Moines, but spent her later childhood and early adulthood in Memphis, Tennessee.
Mickens earned her certification to become a certified nursing assistant (CNA) directly out of high school and accepted a job at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. Mickens said she always knew she would enter the health care field. For as long as she could remember, her grandmother told her she would be a doctor one day because of her desire to help care for others.
She spent the next few years moving back and forth between Des Moines and Memphis, eventually moving back to Des Moines for good in 1996.
Mickens got a job at now MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, where she trained to become a patient care technician in the surgical department. She worked at Mercy for several years before obtaining a role as a patient care technician at Iowa Methodist Hospital’s surgical department in 2006.
It had been Mickens’ longtime goal to go to nursing school, but a growing family had delayed those plans until 2012. She enrolled in Grand View University’s nursing program, taking classes while still working nights at the hospital.
Mickens graduated in 2016 with her nursing degree, as well as a bachelor’s degree in theology. Mickens said one particular theology professor’s lectures were a comforting reprieve from the stress of nursing school, but she also discovered that religious education has become a valuable tool in her practice.
“My faith keeps me grounded and focused in the care that I give,” she said. “It doesn’t matter who I’m taking care of.”
Last year, Mickens accepted a new role as an infection prevention nurse overseeing duties across UnityPoint Health hospitals in Des Moines.
She joins others in building an organization focused on Black women’s health
Black Women 4 Healthy Living co-founder Brandi Miller invited Mickens to join the fledgling organization’s seven-member board in October 2020, a month after the nonprofit officially was established. Miller remembered Mickens as a hard worker from her years as a leader of her son’s Boy Scout Troop, and knew her background as a nurse would be a valuable resource.
“She’s just as much a co-founder,” Miller said. “I know you can technically be a co-founder on a piece of paper, but then there’s people that are actually building it. She’s one of the builders. She’s one of the people that’s really helped make it possible.”
The nonprofit hosts the Black Women’s Health Coalition once a month, offering free health events coordinated by Mickens that focus on concerns that primarily affect Black women’s health. Every month, Mickens conducts wellness screenings of attendees, while answering their questions about medications or their doctor’s orders.
More:‘Wellness, community, justice and God’: New Des Moines nonprofit promotes Black women’s health
Through these events, Mickens has helped Black women lower their blood pressure, lose weight and take other necessary steps to address chronic health issues. But more importantly, Mickens has given them advice on how to advocate for themselves and has seen them gain confidence in exercising a greater voice in their own medical decisions.
“We decided that our health coalition will keep eyes on our women,” Mickens said. “If we can educate them and encourage them and empower them to help them navigate the health care system, then they’ll understand.”
Mickens also volunteers for other health-focused nonprofits. As a board member for the American Red Cross, Mickens has been a key figure in the organization’s efforts to spread awareness about sickle cell disease, a genetic disorder that disproportionately affects Black individuals, Schaffer said.
Through her relationship with Black Women 4 Healthy Living, Mickens has organized regular blood drives over the past two years that tap on Black community members to become blood donors. These individuals are more likely to be a match for those with sickle cell disease, making them a critical source for the blood supply.
Slowly but surely, organizers have seen results, Schaffer said. At the blood drive hosted this past September, they brought in 28 units of blood from diverse donors — the largest collection of diverse blood from a drive hosted in the central region, Schaffer said.
“For two years, I’ve watched the growth and development of this effort,” she said. “In 2024, I personally hope we’re going to see a breakthrough.”
Mickens said she plans to continue on this path, coordinating blood drives and helping Black women improve their health and wellness.
“My personal goal is to continue to do my due diligence in the community to see where I can best help and partner with the right people, because I know you can’t do this work alone,” she said.
Michaela Ramm covers health care for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at mramm@registermedia.com, at (319) 339-7354 or on Twitter at @Michaela_Ramm
Meet Angela Mickens
Age: 52
Lives: Des Moines
Education: 2016 graduate of Grand View University
Career: Infection prevention nurse at UnityPoint Health-Des Moines
Family: Husband, Clifton Bolden; four biological children, Jessica Moore, 35, Arica Mickens, 30, Eric Mickens Jr., 29, and Xarius Mickens, 25, and one bonus daughter, Sienna Bolden, 27; six grandchildren.
About the Des Moines Register’s 2024 People to Watch
It’s a Des Moines Register tradition to close out each year and open the next by introducing readers to 15 People to Watch — individuals expected to make an impact on Iowa in the coming year.
This year’s nominations from readers and our journalists totaled nearly 60 people and posed hard decisions for staff members charged with winnowing them to just 15.
The final 15 include people in business and the arts, those who train the world-class athletes of the future, chefs on the cutting edge, farmers teaching refugees how to run their own farms, and people fighting for representation through cosmetics and medicine. We hope that you are as inspired by reading about them as we were in profiling them.