Dear Cleveland Chiropractic College (as I know it): CONGRATULATIONS on the 100-year celebration of the College. I am so thankful I made the choice to be a chiropractor. As I begin my 38th year in practice in Jenks, Okla., I could not be happier with my decision. I had never been adjusted before I attended chiropractic college. I made my choice to become a chiropractor because I had always wanted to rehab and help special needs children. I was intrigued by the results that my sister and my aunt had achieved with chiropractic care, and I thought this might be my way to help other people. As all of us remember, C3 memorized our names upon our first introduction at the college. Even on my most recent visits back to the college, he still remembered my name.

The education and experiences I had in chiropractic college will always hold a special place in my heart. I am thankful I have been able to maintain the friendships of several of my classmates from that time including: Dr. Doug Mathisen, Drs. Jimmy and Marsha Turner, Dr. Mike Bohigian, Dr. Willard Brimm, Dr. Chris Humble, Dr. Vicki Collins, and Dr. Rick Huskey. I was privileged to have been taught by C2 and C3 as well as many other incredible teachers: my clinician, Dr. Eric Rasmussen, Dr. Doran Nicholson (who has actively helped me with radiographic questions throughout my practice), Dr. Beckley, Dr. Nichols, and Dr. Pat Thomason, just to name a few, who shaped my education.
I continue to recite the one-page description of chiropractic that C2 taught me to every new patient. I believe there were five females in our class of 63 students. I didn’t realize I was a part of females being in the minority of our profession until I watched how that changed through the years. I went on to be a graduate of the first Diplomate class of 1996, of the ICA Council of Chiropractic Pediatrics, and continue to have a thriving population of pediatric patients in my total family practice.
I have two children, Claire and Trace. Recently I shared with them that if someone walked into my clinic today and offered to pay for me to be whatever I wanted to be, I told them I would turn around, go right back through chiropractic college, and do it all over again. There is no better joy and satisfaction than seeing and knowing that the change of someone’s health and life has been, in part, from our hands releasing the nervous system’s interference to help their bodies heal. I have had the privilege of adjusting patients from less than 15 minutes old, to 98-years-old. To the entire Cleveland family and Chiropractic College – THANK YOU!!