Thereafter, and because my father was a federal government employee, we relocated on an almost yearly basis. As difficult as that was at the time, I think this annual “social adjustment” I underwent helped develop my personality, and to a great extent, shaped me into who I am today.
During high school, I began to evolve as a leader. I was elected president of my freshmen class, president of my sophomore class, and then as a junior I became the first junior and the first female to serve as a student body president of my high school (1973-74). Then, as a senior, I was elected state president of the California Association of Student Councils (“CASC”). As president, my entire senior year of high school was taken on “independent study” as I traveled the state on behalf of CASC.
After graduation and not entirely sure of what I wanted to do with my life, I became a flight attendant for United Airlines. I figured that was no better way to see the world and at the same time come to grips with this important decision.
It was during that 3 1/2 year tenure with the airlines that things finally became much clearer. I was home in San Francisco when my mom’s “back went out” on her and she was in tremendous pain until a friend was successful in persuading her to try chiropractic. Needless to say, Chiropractic worked… and, it did so profoundly. At that point, she started “speaking chiropractic” to anyone who would listen, including me.
“But Mom, I don’t have any problems with my back,” I would say. “Oh, really,” she would answer. “Let THE DOCTOR tell you that. What you need is spinal examination…only then will you know if your nervous system is truly functioning correctly.” I thought she had gone off the deep end but ultimately she succeeded into getting me to her chiropractor.
Those chiropractic visits for me were life changing. In fact, I was truly amazed! I couldn’t believe how being adjusted gave me so much energy, vitality and sense of well being. I asked question after question of some sort, and I’ll never forget what happened next. My chiropractor stopped writing, but down his pen, looked me squarely in the eye, and asked me, “Cindy, why don’t YOU become a chiropractor?"
Well, that did it. I immediately enrolled in college, finished my prerequisites, and entered Los Angeles Chiropractic College (now Southern California School of Health Sciences). While a chiropractic student, I served as President of the Women’s Council on campus and eventually graduated Summa cum Laude in December 1984.
From the very beginning of my professional career, I have always felt an obligation to give back. During my first years of practice in Los Angeles, I served as Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Chiropractic Society of the California Chiropractic Association; and two years as President of the Los Angeles Southwest (LASW) Society of the California Chiropractic Association, and received LASW’s “Outstanding New Doctor Award” in both 1987 and 1988.
After relocating to Austin in 1988, I spent the next several years building my practice and having three amazing children. Tyler (currently a high school senior who just last week received an appointment to the US Air Force Academy), Conor (currently a sophomore and an accomplished Thespian), and Cassidy (currently an 8th grader who is state class volleyball player). I am so very proud of them, and they are truly the “lights of my life.”
In 1997, I was appointed by Texas Governor George W. Bush to serve a 6-year term on the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners. In 2000 Governor Bush appointed me president of the board where I served for three years. In that position, I was privileged to serve as the Texas Delegate to the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards and the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
In 2001, I met and fell in love with Dr. James Edwards who as the time was Chairman of the Board of the American Chiropractic Association and a member of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. As my practice partner, husband and best friend, he convinced me that there was so much more I was capable of accomplishing for the chiropractic profession and he encouraged me to seek out additional opportunities that fit my qualifications, expertise and experience.
With his encouragement and support that is what I did. In 2002, I was appointed by U.S. Veterans Administration Secretary Anthony Principe to serve on the VA Chiropractic Advisory Committee that was charged with implementing chiropractic in the enormous Veteran’s Health Administration. In 2005, I was then appointed by VA Secretary James Nicholson to serve on the Veterans’s Administration Advisory committee on Chiropractic care implementation. As a result of the work of these two committees, Chiropractic is now available to our nation’s veterans.
In 2003, I began my service as the East Texas Delegate to the American Chiropractic Association where I have also served as the chairman of the ACA Clinical Documentation Committee. I was honored to be named a Fellow of the International College of Chiropractors (FICC), receive the Chairman’s Award for outstanding service, and receive the 2005 ACA Flynn-Lynch Award for outstanding service. I was also privileged to serve as the ACA’s representative to the 2005 World Federation of Chiropractic Council and Assembly in Sidney, Australia, largely as a result of my service as a member of the World Federation of Chiropractic Identity Task Force.
As I write this biography in 2008, I feel very fortunate to have had the service opportunities I have been afforded, and I am proud of my successfully completed assignments. However, I believe the best is yet to come and look forward to continuing my service to the chiropractic profession for many more years. The American Chiropractic Association has never had a female president and I believe it is time for that to happen. Should the ACA turn to me to serve in that important position, I will seize the opportunity.
