Northeast College of Health Sciences has announced the speakers for its Winter 2024 Ceremony Week. President for the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (FCP) Sherry McAllister, D.C., will address the graduating class during Northeast’s Winter Commencement ceremony on March 30, 2024, and Northeast adjunct professor Dr. Paul Dougherty will speak to seventh-trimester chiropractic students during the College’s Transitions Ceremony on March 28, 2024.

Northeast College Winter Commencement Speaker.

Doctor McCallister

Appointed to Forbes Non-Profit Leadership Council, Dr. McAllister, M.S.Ed, works to showcase the benefits of chiropractic care in her role as president of the national not-for- profit Foundation for Chiropractic Progress. 

In private practice in San Jose, Calif., since 1996, McAllister has served as a qualified medical examiner, expert chiropractic witness for the State of California. She was an associate professor and graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic West and shares her expertise as a frequent guest speaker for national conventions, corporate wellness programs, international chiropractic seminars, health benefit/advisory panels and business and healthcare alliances. 

Northeast Transitions Ceremony Speaker.

An adjunct professor at Northeast College, Dr. Paul Dougherty, also a diplomate of the American Board of Chiropractic Orthopedists, spent 12 years in private practice and was one of the first chiropractors in New York state to be granted privileges to practice in hospitals. He is currently the Integrated Research Section Chief at Syracuse VA Medical Center and is an Investigator for the Center for Integrated Healthcare in the VA, additionally, he also serves as the IRB Chair at the Syracuse VAMC and vice president of the Veterans Health Research Institute of CNY, Inc.

In 2002, Dougherty took over the first-of-its-kind chiropractic clinic in a teaching nursing home at Monroe Community Hospital. He also developed chiropractic teaching clinics at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center as well as a residency program, which evolved into a VA-funded program. The nationwide VA-funded residency program is the first chiropractic residency program to be accredited by the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE), which now has 10 locations. 

Dougherty is a member of the North American Spine Society’s evidence-based guideline committee. He has led multiple funded research studies investigating education programs, interventions for chronic pain and mechanistic studies, and has a special interest in the management of chronic pain in older adults. Dougherty has published multiple peer-reviewed manuscripts and has been involved in the development of chiropractic clinical practice guidelines and best practice documents dealing with the management of chronic pain.

Ceremony Week at Northeast College

Transitions Ceremony marks a shift to the clinical phase of education for seventh-trimester chiropractic students, includes the awarding of traditional white clinical coats and will be on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 12:15 p.m. The culmination of the College’s 2024 Ceremony Week, the Commencement Ceremony features the presentation of degrees to doctor of chiropractic graduates and will be on Saturday, March 30, 2024, at 10 a.m. Northeast professor Mary Balliett will be grand marshal of the ceremony,  Northeast assistant professor Dr. Scott Coon will deliver the faculty address and American College of Chiropractors President Dr. Serge Nerli will appoint the newest Fellows of the American College of Chiropractors (FACC). 

Both ceremonies will be on the Seneca Falls campus in the Standard Process Health and Fitness Center. The highly anticipated week of events also includes the College’s Commitment to Excellence Pledge event for new chiropractic students in their first trimester. For more information, visit www.NortheastCollege.edu/commencement.

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