NEW CHALLENGES, SAME PALMER Today, Chancellor and CEO Dr. Dennis Marchiori, D.C., Ph.D leads Palmer with a collaborative, team-based approach.
Along with developing the face of the Palmer
Main campus, Dr. Dave raised the bar for student admissions and faculty hiring, enhanced the curriculum to emphasize the full spine as well as the extremities and cultivated Palmer’s business relationships in the Quad Cities. New presidents like Virgil Strang, D.C. (Main,
’51), Jerome McAndrews, D.C. (Main, ’56), Donald Kern, D.C. (Main, ’58), and others continued to advance the College in the decades following Dr. Dave’s death in 1978, expanding Palmer’s footprint from California to Florida and conceiving investments at the Fountainhead. But Dr. Dave had left behind a new model of
executive decision-making with which those leaders shared responsibility: the Board of Trustees. With Vickie Anne Palmer, H.C.D. (Hon.), chairing the board for 21 years and continuing to serve as trustee and secretary general, the modern era of Palmer’s history marks a shift in emphasis from family business to complex nonprofit organization. “Today, we have an elite board responsible for the
setting strategic direction of the College,”
says Dr. Marchiori. “As chancellor, I lead with the administration in setting the tactics and strategies that move us in that direction. It’s a much more team- based, collaborative approach, and Palmer will persist as a successful organization because of the decisions we’re making today — and the inspirational vision that guides our future.”
What is it that makes today’s leadership model sustainable? Dr. Marchiori points back to the idea of the right leader at the right time and what he cites
as the contingency theory of leadership, which holds that one’s effectiveness as a leader is contingent on their selected approach to navigating existing circumstances. While D.D., B.J., Mabel and Dr. Dave all possessed the unique strengths needed to meet the challenges of their moments, those strengths risked becoming weaknesses when the moment (and its challenges) inevitably shifted. Now, with a chancellor and CEO with deep
roots at Palmer working alongside Board Chairman Trevor Ireland, D.C. (Main ’70) and a talented team of trustees and administrators, Palmer College has the breadth of shared experience and leadership to interpret and respond successfully to future challenges. The team that will lead the College forward is much
greater than Dr. Marchiori and the board, though. All converging around a belief in Palmer’s mission and values, everyone, from staff and current students to the largest network of chiropractic college alumni in the world, has a critical role to play in how this 125-year- old institution meets the challenges and opportunities of the next moment — and the next. “So much power resides in the alumni and donors of our College,” says Dr. Marchiori, echoing Dr. Dave’s conclusion from a half a century ago. “It’s their success, their connection and their investment that create the aspirations of every student who comes here.” It’s difficult to imagine what D.D. would have made of it all in 1906. Then again, perhaps the words he wrote from his cell at Scott County Jail say all we need them to: “I remain, as ever, the Discoverer of the science of Chiropractic, and am ready to stand by it.”
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