NUCCA’s Mission Statement

To bring public and professional awareness of the health consequences from unmanaged abnormal biomechanics at the craniocervical junction as well as to advance and teach the NUCCA procedures for the objective, measurable, and reproducible chiropractic reduction of the Atlas Subluxation Complex.

NUCCA’s Promise

Credentialed chiropractic procedures focused on the craniocervical junction and its effects on health

NUCCA Board of Directors

Glenn graduated from U.C. Irvine in 1974 with his degree in Social Science. While attending UCI, he was a four year all-American

Dr. Kurt Sherwood graduated from the prestigious Palmer college of Chiropractic with academic and research honors in 1989. Since then he has

Dr. Julia Radwanski is a Board Certified NUCCA doctor at Vital Brain & Spine in Bridgewater, NJ. She graduated at the top

Dr. Michael Zabelin is a fully certified NUCCA doctor practicing in San Francisco as the sole practitioner of Cow Hollow Chiropractic clinic.

Dr. Corey Burt, our newest board member, has a strong commitment to growing and advancing the NUCCA organization. NUCCA has drastically changed

Dr. Marshall Dickholtz Jr. is one of only twenty board certified NUCCA doctors worldwide. He practices in Northbrook, Illinois and is an

Dr. Erwin was born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley. He graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic West in 1990. He

Born in Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Daiki Ishiyama graduated Doctor of Chiropractic from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa in 2008. Dr.

Dr. Ben Kuhn has extensive experience and education in engineering, physics and computers, outdoor living and building. Upon completing all the requirements

Dr. Lapenski discovered NUCCA while in Chiropractic college and following his first NUCCA adjustment, realized this was the care he needed to

Dr. Barbara Read is a wife, mother and Board Certified in the N.U.C.C.A. technique (National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association).  She graduated from

NUCCA Committees

The NUCCA Education Committee is responsible for creating and implementing educational programs for student and graduate chiropractors, faculty and administrators of chiropractic educational institutions, and members of other health care professions to teach and train doctors of chiropractic and chiropractic student interns to provide the procedures discovered and developed by NUCCA research. Programs include the Spring Conference, Fall Conference and Regional Workshops.

Dr. Barbara Read, Co-Chair
Dr. Julia Radwanski, Co-Chair
Dr. Tym Flory
Dr. Hannah Orem
Dr. Kurt Sherwood
Dr. Michael Zabelin

The Certification & Standards Committee shall be responsible for developing, establishing, advocating and implementing standards of patient care for doctors designed to facilitate education by testing proficiency and competency and to design and evaluate, test and approve equipment and instruments as well as the procedures to be taught and used in our educational programs.

Dr. Marshall Dickholtz, Jr., Co-Chair
Dr. Craig Lapenski, Co-Chair
Dr. Glenn Cripe
Dr. Tym Flory
Dr. Michael Foran
Dr. Gordan Hasick
Dr. Daiki Ishiyama
Dr. Kerry Johnson
Dr. Jack Stockwell

The NUCCA Communications Committee shall be responsible for promotion of the NUCCA industry, official publications of the association, oversight of the association website and social media and any other duties as assigned by leadership. The Committee is challenged to identify optimal messages and approaches to reach the NUCCA community, enhance membership and always support the NUCCA mission statement.  The committee will work closely with staff to ensure consistency in messaging as well as the proper messages are being distributed.

Dr. Catherine Zabelin, Chair
Dr. Jason Langslet

Dr. Brian Cripe, Co-Chair
Dr. Kyrie Kleinfelter, Co-Chair
Dr. Kevin Hallmeyer
Dr. Patrick Lin

The Research Committee shall be known as the UCRF and shall be composed of at least five and not more than eleven members, a majority of whom are fully certified and who are in good standing in the Corporation. The officers shall be elected by the members of the UCRF and shall select two representatives of the Certification Committee to serve on the Board of Directors selecting one representative each year at the annual meeting for a term of two years. The UCRF is devoted to developing and facilitating comprehensive research to investigate the relationship between the biomechanical and neurological balance of the upper cervical spine and its profound effect on human health and well- being.

The NUCCA Collegiality Committee enhances the collegiality of NUCCA both internally with the members that create the NUCCA organization and externally within the chiropractic profession and inter-professionally. The mission of the Collegiality Committee is to foster the cooperative relationship of colleagues. Goal for this year is to make NUCCA conferences fun, warm, and welcoming to first time and longtime. Interested in joining? Reach out to the Management Team today!

  • Dr. Don Irwin, Chair
  • Dr. Reanna Plancich, Co-Chair
  • Dr. Corey Burt
  • Dr. Terry McCoskey,  
  • Dr. Melody Jesson

The goal of the NUCCA Fundraising Committee is to ensure strategic fundraising for NUCCA. The Committee partners with leadership. The Committee helps the NUCCA Board carry out its due diligence function related to ensuring fiscal health through philanthropy and fundraising and in doing so, works to build a culture of enthusiasm for fundraising on the Board. The Committee partners with staff to institutionalize the philanthropic process within the Board and its individual members, assuring a donor-centered organization. Interested in joining? Reach out to the Management Team today!

  • Dr. Glenn Cripe – Chair
  • Co-Chair – open
  • Amanda Sullivan

The NUCCA Store Committee works to ensure that the online NUCCA store is a one-stop shop for our members for supplies, products, services and equipment essential for the NUCCA work, but also for other products and services commonly used by our members. Interested in joining? Reach out to the Management Team today!

  • Dr. Catherine Zabelin, Chair

NUCCA Board Certified Doctors

  • Dr. Irene Adamczuk
  • Dr. Glenn Cripe
  • Dr. Dr. Keith Denton
  • Dr. Marshall Dickholtz, Jr.
  • Dr. Don Erwin
  • Dr. Vince Fitzpatrick
  • Dr. Tymothy Flory
  • Dr. Michael Foran
  • Dr. Gordon Hasick
  • Dr. Johanna Hoeller
  • Dr. Daiki Ishiyama
  • Dr. Kerry Johnson
  • Dr. Jason Langslet
  • Dr. Craig Lapenski
  • Dr. Steven MacDonald
  • Dr. Michelle Nowakowski
  • Dr. Hannah Orem
  • Dr. David Packer
  • Dr. Lonnie Pond
  • Dr. Jose Portela-Berrios
  • Dr. Julia Radwanski
  • Dr. Barbara K. Read
  • Dr. Deb Sesker
  • Dr. Finley Sesker
  • Dr. Kurt Sherwood
  • Dr. Jack Stockwell
  • Dr. Levi Wainwright
  • Dr. Lee Yardley
  • Dr. Michael Zabelin

NUCCA Ambassadors

  • Dr. Irene Adamczuk
  • Dr. Bob Brooks
  • Dr. Julia Ciano
  • Dr. Glenn Cripe
  • Dr. Bill Dawson
  • Dr. Keith Denton
  • Dr. Kathy Doyle
  • Dr. Don Erwin
  • Dr. Vince Fitzpatrick
  • Dr. Bob Goodman
  • Dr. Miguel Gracey
  • Dr. Johanna Hoeller
  • Dr. Philip Kanwischer
  • Dr. Steven MacDonald
  • Dr. Terry McCoskey
  • Dr. Bob Neff
  • Dr. Lonnie Pond
  • Dr. Barbara Read
  • Dr. Kurt Sherwood
  • Dr. Jayson Snyder
  • Dr. Dale Strama
  • Dr. Gary Thomson

NUCCA Past Presidents

2022-current

Dr. Glenn Cripe

2010 – 2014

Dr. Lee Yardley

2003 – 2004

Dr. Robert Brooks

1968 – 1990

Dr. Ralph Gregory

2017-2022

Dr. Jeff Scholten

2007 – 2009

Dr. Robert Goodman

1997 – 2002

Dr. Robert Goodman

1967

Dr. Marshall Dickholtz, Sr.

2015 – 2016

Dr. Michael Zabelin

2005 – 2006

Dr. Steel

1990 – 1996

Dr. Berti

1966

Dr. Mathias

History

Dr. Ralph Gregory was a visionary and gifted healer whose lifetime work was the relationship between the upper cervical spine (neck) and its profound influence on the central nervous system and brain stem function. He developed a healing technique now known as NUCCA that stands for the National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association. The circumstances and events that led to the establishment of NUCCA are described as follows.

In 1941, Dr. John Francis Grostic received an atlas adjustment from Dr. Gregory which forged the beginning a close friendship and the evolution of the NUCCA upper cervical procedure. As a victim of Hodgkin’s disease, Dr. Grostic had been unable to obtain a corrective atlas adjustment prior to his visit to Dr. Gregory other than at the B. J. Palmer Chiropractic Clinic in Davenport, Iowa.

While both doctors had practiced full spine adjusting, their primary interest was the upper cervical spine. It was only natural, therefore, that they should collaborate, making every possible attempt to evolve a more biomechanically accurate system of upper cervical subluxation correction. To achieve this end, the installation of precisely aligned x-ray equipment and patient placement became essential, permitting distortion free x-rays to be taken and making x-ray analysis with rotatory measurement acceptable.

Dr. Gregory had been influenced by Dr. A. A. Wernsing’s The Atlas Specific and was greatly impressed by Wernsing’s comment: “…due to the shape of the superior articular facets of the atlas, the atlas moves laterally as if on the rim of circle”. From there, Drs. Grostic and Gregory added the axis superior articulations, and as a result, the condylar-axial concept became the starting point for what was to become the Grostic Technique.

In early 1943, Dr. Grostic, who was not satisfied with existing methods of determining atlas laterality, developed the prototype of the instrument which was to become the cephalometer, a skull-divider for establishing the central skull line. When joined to the atlas plane line, these two lines formed two angles with atlas laterality being on the side of the acute angle. This system of establishing atlas laterality was checked for months by both Grostic and Gregory. It was found to be consistent and remains so today. Rapidly following this work were the concepts of atlas-odontoid relationship, axis-spinous position, the lower angle, the method for determining atlas rotation, the discontinuance of the recoil for the triceps pull adjustment, and the horizontal resultant. Analytical instruments were perfected, adjusting tables modified, and adjustment coordinators developed.

Immediately following the death of Dr. Grostic in 1964, Dr. Gregory did not wish to continue teaching seminars, but concentrated on advancing the basic work. In early 1966, however, he was contacted by Dr. L. H. McLellan of Mesa, Arizona who requested that Dr. Gregory conduct seminars for several chiropractors because of his close affiliation with Dr. Grostic. Dr. Gregory finally agreed and held the first seminar in 1966 at the Howard Johnson Motel in Monroe, Michigan. By 1978 the seminars were approved for license renewal by the Michigan State Board of Examiners.

Dr. Gregory consulted with Mr. Donald A. Miller, a Detroit attorney and former friend and legal adviser to Dr. Grostic, who, with other interested chiropractors, formed The National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association, Inc. (NUCCA), a fraternal organization, on April 16, 1966.

Elected first President was Dr. Irvin Mathias of Indiana; Vice-President, Dr. Albert Dick of Michigan; Secretary, Dr. Robert Kemp of Michigan; Treasurer, Dr. Marshall Dickholtz of Illinois, and three NUCCA directors: Drs. Max Foster and Ralph R. Gregory of Michigan and Andrew Mathias of Indiana. The newly elected board adopted the NUCCA emblem and authorized an official organ, NUCCA News, of which Dr. Gregory was appointed editor. The first publication was issued in December of 1966. Harry Long, Ph.D. was appointed the first research advisor in 1967.

As ever-increasing clinical observations arose, hypotheses were formulated that required testing. Research expanded, re-examination of the original basic work had to be facilitated, and newer methods of subluxation analysis and correction developed. To accomplish this task, the NUCCA board was advised that a research organization needed to be established because NUCCA was a fraternal organization and could not conduct research.

The National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Research Association (NUCCRA) was incorporated for research purposes only. It was decided that NUCCA should publish a more scientifically-oriented paper and the name NUCCA News was changed to The Monograph, meaning: learned treatise on a particular subject.

Since then, the accomplishments of NUCCA and NUCCRA have been numerous and include: (1) The development of the double-pivot-point system in x-ray analysis; (2) The development of the triceps pull adjustment; (3) The design of improved film analytical instruments; (4) The development of biomechanical concepts in film analysis and adjusting; (5) The design and development of the Anatometer by Dr. Gregory and Peter Benesh, an instrument which measures bodily distortions before and after the C-1 adjustment, providing proof of the effects of a C-1 subluxation; (6) The design and development of a multiple support headpiece for extreme subluxations; (7) The establishment of a vertical axis for C-1 subluxations; (8) The classification of C-1 subluxations into basic types; (9) The location of the skull center of gravity; (10) The identification of the components of the lever system and their relationship inherent in an Occipital-Atlanto-Axial subluxation.