Dr. Dana Lawrence is the Associate Provost of Education and Research at Parker University. Dr. Lawrence was previously the Senior Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and interim Senior Director for Continuing Education and Events at Palmer College of Chiropractic. Before that, he was a member of the research department. Prior to coming to Palmer College, Dr. Lawrence spent 23 years at the National University of Health Sciences, leaving the institution as a dean of one of its three colleges.
He is the past editor of several professional, scientific journals for the chiropractic profession, including the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, Journal of Chiropractic Humanities, and Journal of Sports Chiropractic and Rehabilitation. He recently held an appointment as the editor of the Chiropractic Journal of Australia and is currently the editor of the Journal of Contemporary Chiropractic. As a founding member of the Chiropractic Research Journal Editor’s Council, Dr. Lawrence helped to elevate the profession’s understanding of the issues involved in the ethical biomedical publications and to set standards governing that publication.
He was also the editor for two text series, Yearbook of Chiropractic and Advances in Chiropractic, both of which were published through the Mosby Year Book Company. He has published a number of textbooks, including Fundamentals of Chiropractic Diagnosis and Management and Chiropractic Technique (with Drs. Tom Bergmann and David Peterson). He also serves on more than 20 editorial boards and is also an associate editor for several. Dr. Lawrence was a co-investigator on Palmer College’s R25 grant, designed to help expand the use and understanding of evidence-based practice among the faculty and student body at Palmer College.
Dr. Lawrence was a merit reviewer for the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research and for the Health Resources Service Agency (HRSA) in both their Chiropractic Demonstration Grants program, the Interdisciplinary Training for Rural Health Care program, and other programs related to the delivery of healthcare in rural settings. He was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Office of Alternative Medicine. He later became a member of the Alternative Medicine Program Advisory Council of the OAM and the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He drafted the entry on chiropractic that appeared in “Alternative Medicine: Expanding Medical Horizons.” Dr. Lawrence was even invited to participate in President Clinton’s healthcare reform program and has many professional publications. In 1998, Dr. Lawrence was named “Researcher of the Year” by the Foundation for Chiropractic Research and Education for his service to the profession. He has also been awarded two Presidential Leadership Awards from the American Chiropractic Association, and in 2013, was named “Academician of the Year” by the ACA. Dr. Lawrence serves as vice-chair for the institutional review board (IRB) for Genesis Health Care in Davenport, IA. In addition to his DC degree, Dr. Lawrence has earned Master’s degrees in Medical Education (MMedEd) from the University of Dundee and Bioethics and Health Policy (MA) from Loyola University Chicago.