My Background

I earned my BS at Central Michigan University, with a triple major and a triple minor including Sports Medicine, Religion, Education, Sex Education, and Physical Education, graduating Cum Laude. As a member of the Honor’s Department, I was given the grant to study at the University of Hawaii, taking both undergraduate and graduate classes in religion and ethics. I specialized in Eastern Religions and Philosophy as well as being the first person to graduate with a degree in Teaching the Academic Study of Religions in the Public Schools and Teaching the Bible as Literature.

While serving as a United States Air Force flight navigation officer I contracted an auto-immune disorder and was given less than a year to live. (That was after being seen in several hospitals in Texas and California.) One of my martial arts instructors, Tri Thong Dang, suggested I try acupuncture. With nothing to lose, but also a philosophical background in the concepts of TCM, I did find a practitioner and started acupuncture treatment. As it turned out, my first acupuncturist was Japanese, and he practiced Ryodoraku.

I believe acupuncture saved my life. I decided to go back to school, in an effort to “give back”. I spent several months doing research and looking at schools across the US, deciding where to go. California has the strictest educational standards and highest levels of training in Oriental medicine. I did my graduate degree at the California Acupuncture College in Los Angeles (associated with UCLA medical school), where I served 2 terms as Student Body President and graduated in the top 5 of my class. While working on my Doctorate there I taught advanced needle technique and again graduated in the top 5 of my class.

My research on childbirth and delivery was published in an international medical journal and I wrote a textbook on herbs and acupuncture. I later became a contributing author and chief editor of the Practical Applied Nutrition Course, leading to becoming a Certified Nutritional Consultant in the State of California. Over the years, I authored a number of articles on vitamins, minerals, herbs, supplements, diet, lifestyle, martial arts as well as a video series on the Japanese martial art of Aikido.

I’ve done post-doctorate studies at the University of San Francisco, the University of Hawaii, the Emperor’s College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, seminars across the USA, in Beijing, Tokyo and Kyoto. I saw patients in Hollywood and Torrance, California and after graduation I briefly joined the practice of my mentor, Dr. Deke Kendall, before deciding to return home to Battle Creek, Michigan. At that time, I was the first Board Certified, Doctor of Oriental Medicine to practice in Michigan.

For 10 years I had one of the busiest practices in the Midwest. Four of my former classmates joined my practice and I opened a second office in Kalamazoo. In 1983 I started formulating herbal and nutritional supplements for several companies. In 1989 I joined a supplement company as product consultant and lecturer while also maintaining my practice. In 1995 I helped start an international supplement company as the Senior Vice President for Product Technology and Training and in 1996 left my private practice. For the next 22 years I formulated well over 60 nutritional and herbal supplements for distribution in over 30 countries. I also traveled giving seminars on diet, health, and supplements to the general public, while also giving Continuing Education Classes for physicians, nurses, pharmacists and physical therapists in the USA, the UK, Canada, Mexico, around the Pacific Rim, the Caribbean, and many of the Arab countries. In 2017 that company was acquired by a much larger supplement company. Today, I work, part-time as a consultant to that company and see patients in private practice.

I’m currently the VP of MiSA (Michigan Society of Acupuncturists). The Governor has appointed me to a four year term on the State Board of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and I also serve on the Disciplinary Subcommittee.