James D. Edwards, DC
Dr. Cynthia Vaughn was a 1984 summa cum laude graduate of the Southern California University of Health Sciences. She was appointed to the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners by Governor George W. Bush in 1997 and appointed president of the board by Gov. Bush in 2000, thus becoming the first female doctor of chiropractic to ever hold the office.
She served three years as president of the board and in that position, also served as the Texas state delegate to the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners and the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards.
During her career, Dr. Vaughn also served as the secretary-treasurer of the Texas Chiropractic Association, East Texas delegate to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), vice president of the ACA Council of Delegates, and chair of the ACA Clinical Documentation Committee.
In 2002, U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) then-Secretary Anthony Principi appointed Dr. Vaughn to the VA Chiropractic Advisory Committee;1 and in March 2005, then-VA Secretary R. James Nicholson appointed her to the VA Advisory Committee on Chiropractic Care Implementation.2
During that lengthy process, objective observers noted that she was the “glue” that held the multidisciplinary (MD, DO and DC) committees together, which successfully implemented chiropractic care for our nation’s veterans.
In regard to her years of service on those two extremely important VA committees, Dr. Vaughn has candidly stated that being able to be a participant in this tremendous victory for our nation’s veterans was the absolute pinnacle of her professional career.
In 2001, Dr. Vaughn was elected a “fellow” of the International College of Chiropractors, earning the designation “FICC”; and in 2005, she received the ACA “Dr. John Flynn & Dr. Robert Lynch Memorial Award” for outstanding service and leadership. In 2007, she received the “Keeler Plaque Award,” recognizing the Texas Doctor of the Year; and in 2008, she received the ACA “Delegate of the Year” award.
Dr. Vaughn was elected to the Parker University Board of Trustees in 2009; elected secretary of the Parker University Board of Trustees in 2010; and elected chair of the Board of Trustees in 2012.
Author’s Closing Observations About Dr. Vaughn
As her husband at the time, I had a ringside seat during Dr. Vaughn’s work on the VA Advisory Committee and VA Implementation Committee. And as the chairman (CEO) of the ACA Board of Governors, nothing took precedent over me attending each and every meeting in Washington, D.C. That’s because making chiropractic care available to veterans had been a 75-year effort by this profession.
When it was finally within our reach, I was committed to making sure our three-member ACA team had all the resources and support it needed. The team’s goal was to pitch a perfect game with no hits, no walks and no errors - and that is exactly what Drs. Reed Phillips, Rick McMichael and Cynthia Vaughn did!
For lack of a better description, the composition of the first VA Chiropractic Advisory Committee was intentionally “designed to fail.” In fact, one DC appointee declined to serve for that very reason because it was composed of eight medical physicians, three ACA representatives, one ICA representative, one World Chiropractic Alliance representative and one National Association of Chiropractic Medicine representative.
While Dr. Vaughn knew all the issues forward and backward (from “full scope” to “direct access” to “prescriptive rights”), perhaps her greatest skill was being able to diplomatically convince others – especially the medical physicians – to support the ACA positions.
While Dr. Vaughn rightfully considers her work on the two VA committees the pinnacle of her professional career, it was much more than that. Due to her Herculean efforts – and just like Dr. Anna Foy, who passed the first chiropractic licensing law in the world,3 and Dr. Patricia Arthur in the successful Wilk v. AMA lawsuit4 – Dr. Vaughn made history!
Author’s Note: Stay tuned! The final installment in this six-part series will focus on the charter inductee in the “fervor” category. Should you have any questions, comments or suggested future inductees, contact me by email at Doctor@JamesEdwards.com.
References
- Edwards JD. “B. J. Would Be Proud!” Dynamic Chiropractic, November 2003.
- Edwards JD. “The VA Committees: Mission Accomplished!” Dynamic Chiropractic, January 2006.
- Edwards JD. “Honoring the Chiropractic Profession’s Heroines (Pt. 1).” Dynamic Chiropractic, June 2025.
- Edwards JD. “Honoring the Chiropractic Profession’s Heroines (Pt. 3).” Dynamic Chiropractic, August 2025.
