ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

ALUMNI PROFILE DR. GERALDINE MULHALL-WRIGHT

CLASS OF 1997

A few years ago, one of the children in my life was learning how to walk down the stairs, forwards, instead of turning around backwards and crawling down. As we were going through this, I reached out a hand to make sure she was ok. She grabbed my hand and as we walked down I asked her if she was ok. She said, “I got this,” I asked “You sure?” She said, “I got this.” I checked again and sure enough she repeated “I got it.” The entire time, I was giggling because I thought here she is holding onto my hand and yet she’s saying ‘I’ve got this. As I looked back on that video, I realized that somewhere in my mind I thought that when I say “I’ve got this” it meant that I had to do it all on my own.

When I left Life West in 1997, I was so happy to put school in the rearview mirror and start my career. I didn’t want to go back to campus, I didn’t want to go to homecomings, I had a few friends that I wanted to keep in contact with and that was it. I was done. The pressure cooker of the chiropractic program was absolutely beyond anything I wanted to deal with again and I was the steam coming out as fast as I could.

And then in 2011, I got the call. Dr. Debbie Lindemann called to see if I was interested in teaching. I was truly surprised to realize that I was interested. So, in January 2012, I started co-teaching my fi rst class with her. I was still in full time practice and now part time teaching, what a ride that was! I had only a vague idea as a student what the teachers had to do and what gifts they brought to the school and the students.

Then a student invited me to go on my fi rst mission trip. So o I went to China. (Now mind you, being of almost full Irish descent, my goal was to go to Ireland when I started travelling.) I got to see the Great Wall, serve hundreds of people, and see things in patients that I would have never seen in the USA. Talk about a total refresher on chiropractic and miracles! That mission trip led to another and an opportunity to teach a small class on primitive refl exes. The primitive refl ex class led to an invitation to give a talk to around 1,000 people on how chiropractic care can decrease the rate of c-section and therefore death in moms and babies. (Look out students; 60-80 tired students is not a challenge to bring enthusiasm to anymore!)

Travel has obviously been restricted over the last two years, so I haven’t been able to go on any mission trips. What did happen is that because of my connection to the college, and Dr. Oberstein and the Life West community working so diligently on keeping the school open, I was able to have information to ensure that I was able to continue serving my practice members throughout the last few years. Because of my connection to the ICPA, I have an even more vitalistic and salutogenic approach that has reinforced that love and connection, instead of fear and the outside-in model, is the way through this next phase, for me and for my practice. I have had somewhere around 8-12 preceptors in my o ce in the last 5-10 years and that has also enhanced my practice.

This year it is my great pleasure to serve as your Alumni Board President. We need, more than ever, as a profession and a community to reach out to each other. The entire Alumni Board is here to serve you and listen to what you need after you leave LCCW. We also want you to know that we can do more for our community when we can count on you as well. So if you want to reconnect to the miracle of chiropractic, come join us on a mission trip! If you want to reconnect to people in your class or the school, come to or host a President's road trip event. Sign up for the Wave. If you want to connect with a student, become a preceptor drop an email to our Director of Alumni Relations Dr. Joseph Ibe (2010 LCCW graduate) at jibe@lifewest.edu. Stand up and take the chiropractic oath again with the new DC’s at a graduation. I guarantee that when you do any of these things, LCCW will continue being the connection that allows you to say “I’ve got this!”