Since then, female Palmer graduates
have recorded numerous
other firsts in a variety of areas.
The profiles in the following
pages highlight just some of
Palmer’s many innovators, each
a leading lady in her own right.
Minora Paxson, D.C., Davenport 1900
Unlike many professions in the early 20th century, chiropractic counted a
sizable number of women among its practitioners, the first of which was
Minora Paxson, D.C. After earning her chiropractic degree at D.D. Palmer’s
Chiropractic School and Cure in 1900, Dr. Paxson is reputed to have been
the first chiropractor to obtain a license under the Illinois Medical Practice
Act, which regulated drugless healthcare providers. She then began her
career as an educator at D.D.’s second chiropractic college, known as the
Palmer Chiropractic School in Santa Barbara, Calif. Dr. Paxson then cofounded
the American School of Chiropractic (ASC) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
with the help of Palmer graduates Oakley Smith, D.C., 1899, and Solon
Langworthy, D.C., 1901.
At ASC, Dr. Paxson was the first professor to take chairs on gynecology and
obstetrics in a chiropractic school. Then, with Drs. Langworthy and Smith,
she co-authored the first chiropractic textbook, “Modernized Chiropractic,”
in 1906. Dr. Paxson was also a lecturer on physiology and symptomatology.
Mabel Palmer, D.C., Davenport 1905
After marrying B.J. Palmer in 1904, Mabel (Heath)
Palmer became the first woman in the Palmer
family to help chart the course of chiropractic.
Following her graduation at the Palmer School
of Chiropractic in 1905, Dr. Palmer went to
Chicago to study anatomy and wrote the textbook
“Chiropractic Anatomy.” Then, as a professor,
she would lend her expertise in anatomy
to Palmer for nearly 40 years. She also helped
support future women chiropractors as the charter
president of the first-ever women’s chiropractic
organization—Sigma Phi Chi.
Mabel occasionally took a break from her faculty and administrative
careers at Palmer by traveling around the world with B.J. to spread the
word about chiropractic. Their adventures were covered in the books
“Stepping Stones,” which Mabel wrote, and “Around the World with B.J.,”
which she co-authored with her husband.
In contrast to B.J.’s somewhat unconventional personality, Mabel would
gain the title of “First Lady of Chiropractic” for her diplomacy. Her defining
role in the history of Palmer College is recognized by the inclusion of her
bronze bust in Heritage Courtyard on the Davenport Campus, next to the
busts of B.J., father-in-law D.D. and son, David D. Palmer.
Sylva Ashworth, D.C., Davenport 1910
Dr. Ashworth helped champion
the cause of chiropractic as a
founder of the Universal Chiropractors’
Association (UCA)—
today’s American Chiropractic
Association—which was formed
to defend chiropractors from
medical prosecution. She also founded
the International Chiropractic Congress
in 1928 to help chiropractors of various philosophies work
together, and the National Chiropractic Association in 1930.
In 1938, Dr. Ashworth was the first woman to be elected a fellow
of the International College of Chiropractors, which was
created “to promote the philosophy, science and art of chiropractic
and to promote the teaching and the study of chiropractic.”
One of her children, Rose Ruth Ashworth, D.C., Davenport
1919, would, with husband Carl Cleveland, D.C., Davenport
1917, found Central Chiropractic College—now known as
Cleveland Chiropractic College.
Helen McKenzie, D.C., Davenport 1916
After establishing a practice
in Brooklyn, N.Y., Dr. Helen
McKenzie moved to Sydney,
Australia, where she would become
the first woman chiropractic
graduate to practice chiropractic
in Australia.
Kathryn “Kitty” Scallon, D.C., Davenport 1926
In 1949, after practicing chiropractic
for more than 25 years,
Dr. Kitty Scallon and her husband,
Michael Scallon, D.C.,
Davenport 1926, were charged
with “practicing medicine without a
license,” in New York. Both in their
fifties, Michael served a one-year prison
sentence while Kitty served six months.
Within hours of her release, Kitty started caring for patients again.
The Scallons later joined the American Bureau of Chiropractic,
which sought the help of its members’ patients to lobby politicians
on the importance of chiropractic. In 1963, the New York
Chiropractic Practice Act became law.
Lorraine Golden, D.C., Davenport 1942
In 1954, Dr. Golden founded the Kentuckiana
Center for Education, Health &
Research in Louisville, Ky. Now
known as the Kentuckiana Children’s
Center, the facility offers
free educational and rehabilitation
services, psychological and
family counseling, audiological
and dental referrals, and special
education to indigent multi-handicapped
children. The clinic was
established on property that was purchased
through the first federal grant
given to an organization providing chiropractic
services by the U.S. Department of Health, Education
and Welfare. In an interview in ICA Review, she said, “I’ve
always loved children, and I’ve always wanted to see that they
got the very best we have to offer—not just chiropractically
but any way at all.”
Lelia Schlabach, D.C., Davenport 1947
Among her many accomplishments, Dr.
Schlabach lobbied for the chiropractic
cause in Arizona. At Palmer, she was
the first woman named to the first
Board of Trustees in 1973 following
the passing of Dr. David Palmer.
As a Trustee, she submitted a
resolution to the Board in 1980
for Palmer to acquire the struggling
Northern California College
of Chiropractic—now known as the
West Campus of Palmer College of
Chiropractic. That initiative earned her
the title of the “founding mother” of the West
Campus by chiropractic historian Joe Keating, Ph.D. She is
now in her 60th year of practice.
Nell Kimbrough Williams, D.C., Davenport 1956
With her husband, Sid Williams,
D.C., also a 1956 Palmer graduate,
Dr. Nell Williams founded Si-Nel
Publishing in 1957 to publish
chiropractic brochures, pamphlets
and tapes. In 1966, she co-founded
Life Foundation, a non-profit
organization that supports chiropractic
research, education and service
on a worldwide basis. With her husband,
she founded Life Chiropractic College in
Marietta, Ga., in 1974. As a faculty member there, in 1981 she
wrote the “Basic Chiropractic Assistant Textbook: Practice
Administration and Management.” A charter member of the
Georgia Council of Chiropractic, she’s been called “an active and
effective proponent of legislation that helped bring chiropractic
into the mainstream of public acceptance.”
Mary Ann Chance, D.C., FICC, FACC, Davenport 1959
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In 1975, Dr. Chance was appointed
to the position of executive
officer of the Australian Chiropractors’
Association (ACA). That
same year, the premier of
Victoria, the state in which she
lived, declared that there could be
no licensure for chiropractors as
long as there were no Australian colleges
where they could qualify. The
ACA then founded the International
College of Chiropractic, which evolved into the current chiropractic
program at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
Also during her tenure in the ACA, Dr. Chance was part of
a team that lobbied for chiropractic legislation throughout
Australia, government funding of chiropractic education and
health coverage for chiropractic services. She was also a signatory
to the Articles of Incorporation of the Australasian Council
on Chiropractic Education and the Australian Spinal Research
Foundation. Since 1983, Dr. Chance has co-edited the Chiropractic
Journal of Australia with her husband, Rolf Peters, D.C.,
MCSc, FICC, FACC, Davenport 1957.
Maxine McMullen, D.C., R.N., Davenport 1971
Originally a surgical nurse, the native
of Auckland, N.Z., decided to come
to the U.S. to become a chiropractor
after she found chiropractic
offered her relief from a pancreatic
condition. As a chiropractor she
has devoted much of her career to
the area of pediatrics, including her
years as a professor at Palmer’s
Davenport and Florida campuses,
where she was the first woman at a
chiropractic college to be named academic
dean. An international lecturer on pediatrics,
Dr. McMullen has served as vice president of the International
Chiropractic Association and founded the ICA’s Pediatric Council.
She also created the council’s Diplomate in Pediatrics program,
and was one of the first members to earn certification in the
program. She has been an editor of the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic
Pediatrics since it was first published in 1996.
Bobby Doscher, D.C., Davenport 1977
Since 1977, when she accepted a position
at Oklahaven Children’s Chiropractic
Center in Oklahoma City,
Dr. Doscher has been helping
severely neurologically disorganized
children. “Dr. Bobby,” as
she is known to her staff and
patients, became president/CEO
of the Center in 1979, a position
which is especially meaningful for
her as she wore leg braces the first
year of her life. “Chiropractic gave
me my health,” she said. In 1986, Dr.
Doscher developed Oklahaven on the Move
to provide chiropractic care for children around the world through
seminars and clinics. Oklahaven is currently marking its 45th year
of service, which holds its Have-A-Heart Campaign each February.
Kelli Pearson, D.C., DABCO, FICC, West 1982
In 1992, Dr. Pearson became one of the
first three chiropractors in the U.S. to
earn an HMO appointment and
have staff privileges at Group
Health Cooperative, a consumergoverned
nonprofit healthcare
system. “Back in the early ’80s, it
was an unusual dream for a D.C.
to want to work with M.D.s,” said
Dr. Pearson. “But the tables slowly
turned over the next 15 years to the
point where D.C.s began to show
interest in working with the medical
community, both in and outside of the
managed care arena. It was fun to break new ground.”
Today, along with operating her own practice, Dr. Pearson has
other venues, including a collaborative care clinic with physical
therapists, a collaborative care clinic with a sports medicine
family physician and a clinic at Gonzaga University in Spokane,
Wash, that treats the university’s athletes.
Joan Fallon, D.C., FICCP, Davenport 1983
Dr. Fallon is recognized internationally as an
expert on chiropractic pediatric care, with a
master’s degree in clinical investigation from
Massachusetts General Hospital. A fellow of
the International Council on Chiropractic
Pediatrics, Dr. Fallon has co-anchored
Palmer’s postgraduate program on pediatrics
and done extensive research into the causes of
autism. After discovering a relationship between
the lack of protein digestion due to a missing
enzyme in children with autism, she received a special
commendation from both houses of the New York State legislature and
has been issued four patents.
Dr. Fallon is one of the founding members of the International Chiropractic
Association’s Council on Pediatrics and co-edits its Journal of Clinical Chiropractic
Pediatrics. As an author, her work with ear infections in children has
been featured in Good Housekeeping, Parents, Parenting, Baby Talk and Autism
Digest. She has also written extensively on children with autism, attention
deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),
as well as on chiropractic care for children and pregnant women.
Lisa Killinger, D.C., Davenport 1983
Dr. Killinger was the first chiropractor hired, in a
chiropractic capacity, by the U.S. government as
a consultant to the Health Resources and Services
Administration’s Chiropractic Program
(HRSA) in 1999. She was selected because of
her track record of directing and co-directing
several HRSA grants and contracts on the
topics of geriatrics, interdisciplinary care and
education. She currently serves as a governing
councilor for the American Public Health
Association’s Chiropractic Health Care Section
after two terms as section chair.
As a professor in and Chair of the Diagnosis and
Radiology Department on Palmer’s Davenport Campus, Dr. Killinger
teaches healthy aging and gender-related health, among other courses.
For the chiropractic profession, she has authored and co-authored five
book chapters and 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and made more
than 120 presentations at scientific and educational conferences, primarily
on health promotion, wellness, and geriatric care. However, when asked
to reflect on her achievements, Dr. Killinger said her “most important
accomplishment has been raising four children, one of whom is currently
a student on Palmer’s Davenport Campus.”