UPFRONT | Roundup PROFESSIONaL gROWTH Wickes outlines priorities as new CMCC president The new president of the Canadian Memorial Chiro-practic College (CMCC) will focus on pursuing three main agenda for the college: education, research and patient care. At his official inaugura-tion last November, Dr. David Wickes outlined many of his priorities as president to continue the evolution of the CMCC as a leader in chiropractic education, research and the provision of health care. “As an educator, I revel in watching students ex-plore, discover and learn,” said Wickes. “We will em-plo y optimal evi -dence-based lear ning methods and technologies to augment the classroom experience. We will provide a superior technology infra-structure to better enable students and faculty to use mobile devices and facili-tate anytime-anywhere learning and inactivity.” Wickes noted previous CMCC president Dr. Jean Moss has set a very high bar for the school and he will continue to build on the successes of the college. He declared, “I promise to leave CMCC in an even better position for the fu-ture president of CMCC – many, many years from now.” Wickes relocated to To-ronto from Bridgeport, CT, last summer to join CMCC and assumed the role of president on July 1, 2014. He has a strong foundation in academic administra-tion. His many accomplish-ments include the design and implementation of master’s degree programs, the implementation of new curricular improvement. “We will continue to expand our clinical offer-ings so that we can ensure that our students are im-mersed in an experience rich in diversity of patients, breadth of complexity and mix of health-care provid-ers,” he said. At the official inaugura-tion the new CMCC pres-ident received well wishes and greetings from several personalities in the chiro-practic and education community, including: David O’Bryon, president of the Association of Chi-ropractic Colleges; Ellen Vogel, president of the Canadian Association of Health Sciences Deans; Dr. Robert David, presi-dent of the Canadian Chi-ropractic Association; Dr. Kristina Peterson, president of the Ontario Chiropractic Association; Dr. Ron Brady, president of the CMCC Governors’ Club; Dr. David Star mer, chair of the CMCC Faculty Council; Alfredo Petrone, president, CMCC Students’ Council; and Dr. James Lunney, Member of Parliament. In his remarks, Lunney noted CMCC’s “predomi-nant role” in the develop-ment of the chiropractic profession in Canada. “From my view on the Hill, chiropractic has what we need to achieve sustain-able health care,” he said. “Canada must embrace innovation, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness or we will lose our competi-tiveness internationally… T his is an area where chiropractic has much to offer.” -Mari-Len De Guzman CMCC Board of Governors chair Dr. Mark Labrecque (left) with newly inaugurated president Dr. David Wickes. organizational structures, development of articulation agreements with other insti-tutions, implementation of distance learning, manage-ment of new building pro-jects, curriculum develop-ment, fundraising and the development of student as-sessment programs. Addressing another pri-ority of his presidency, Wickes said CMCC’s out-standing reputation is in part due to the school’s long commitment to research. CMCC allocates close to 12 per cent of its annual budget to graduate education and research. “It is critical to the chiro-practic profession that the premier research on spinal manipulation and the chiro-practic adjustment be the product of our chiropractic institutions, our adjunct faculty holding research positions in various univer-sities, and our funded re-search chairs. “We cannot and will not relinquish the responsibility of exploring and validating the basic and clinical con-cepts of manipulation to the other health profes-sions,” Wickes said. Wickes also stressed the need to provide its students an “amazing clinical expe-rience” through sophisti-cated clinical examination tools and state-of-the-art treatment facilities. Wickes said CMCC will continue to expand its clin-ical quality assurance sys-tem to provide information used to enhance patient care, improve operational efficiency and help drive 12 Canadian Chiropractor December 2014 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor December 2014: Page 12
