Meet the Team

Dr. Stephanie Sullivan is a scientist and chiropractor whose work focuses on advancing human resilience and deciphering the mechanisms of action for chiropractic care.  Dr. Sullivan is the associate vice president of research and director of the Dr. Sid E. Williams Center for Chiropractic Research (CCR) at Life University, where she works with her team and collaborators to advance the center’s mission-driven research. Dr. Sullivan also provides leadership and guidance for the Complementary Healthcare Advanced Research and Leadership Institute (CHARLI) at Life University.  

 Dr. Sullivan earned her Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life University and holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute at the University of Georgia. Her professional background includes a career in banking and marketing before she decided to return to school for research and chiropractic studies. Leveraging her past expertise, Dr. Sullivan has worked to propel the CCR forward, conducting impactful research studies, and disseminating valuable information through various media channels, such as presentations, peer-reviewed publications, and open-access venues.

 Dr. Sullivan’s research currently focuses on brain-based and autonomic changes following chiropractic care. She is particularly interested in exploring the role of chiropractic care in fostering stress resilience among active duty and veteran military service members and first responders. Dr. Sullivan’s research portfolio extends to developing the Well-being and Health Expression Evaluation List (WHEEL) and establishing a research-based learning healthcare community.

 Outside of her research commitments and university support endeavors, Dr. Sullivan enjoys spending quality time with her family, participating in outdoor activities, and working with her husband on their farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Stephanie Dyer is an urban geographer whose work critically analyzes the technical, political, and philosophical transformations of urban life in the Anthropocene. She is Assistant Professor and Director of the Human Ecology program at Life University, where she teaches courses on urban resilience and sustainability, human-environment relations, social-ecological systems thinking, and Anthropocene strategy. Prior to joining Life, she was an Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at Florida International University and taught Urban and Environmental Studies for over a decade in New York, where she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Culture and Media at The New School and an Instructor in the Department of Urban Studies and Environmental Studies program at Queens College. She is currently co-lead of the NSF-funded Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research Project Human Dimensions working group.

She is the author of Anthropocene Back Loop: Experimentation in Unsafe Operating Space (Open Humanities Press, 2020) and co-editor (with David Chandler and Kevin Grove) of Resilience in the Anthropocene: Governance and Politics at the End of the World (Routledge, 2020). She is currently finishing a new book, Urbanization in the Anthropocene, which critically analyzes experimental sea rise adaptations in Miami and traces the potential of an emergent ‘urbicidal Anthropocene’ beyond both urban resilience and planetary urbanization.

Along with scholarly publication and teaching, she frequently works with community groups, art institutions, and nonprofits to explore experimental sustainability planning and community resilience design. Across her work her goal is to shift the center of gravity in resilience and climate change thinking away from designs that reproduce the socioeconomic status quo and toward a widespread, democratic exploration of the transformative potential of the Anthropocene.

Dr. Amber Jackson, known as Dr. Jackson, is a passionate chiropractor dedicated to providing exceptional care to her patients. With a background in fashion and retail management, Dr. Jackson’s journey to chiropractic medicine was inspired by her personal experiences as a student athlete and her commitment to helping others heal and thrive. Dr. Jackson’s career path took an unexpected turn during her time as a student athlete at Alabama State University. While playing volleyball, she suffered a back injury that led to multiple disc protrusions in her lumbar spine. This injury forced her to reconsider her dream of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. After soul- searching and self-reflection, Dr. Jackson had vision that led her to discover the field of chiropractic medicine. Since then, she has been unwavering in her dedication to helpingpatients find healing and relief.

Dr. Martha Herbert is a pediatric neurologist, neuroscientist, systems thinker and writer. She earned her PhD in the History of Consciousness at the University of California Santa Cruz, and her medical degree at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.  As a faculty member in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School she founded and directed the collaborative multidisciplinary TRANSCEND Research Program (Treatment Research and Neuroscience Evaluation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders). She is executive director of the Higher Synthesis Foundation, which documents, analyzes and generates transformational successes achieved through regenerative bio-cultural practices — i.e., emergent complex health, food and ecological approaches that are restoring the robustness and integrity of damaged biological systems.

Dr. Mackenzie Keller is a 2021 Life University graduate and was a Research Track scholarship recipient. She has research published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics and presented research at the 2022 and 2023 Association of Chiropractic Colleges Research Agenda Conference.

Angela is the Program Manager of the Dr. Sid E. Williams Center for Chiropractic Research at Life University.  She earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Kennesaw State University focusing on Human Services.  She continued her learning and earned a Master of Public Administration Degree from Keller Graduate School of Management focusing on Nonprofit Management.  She has worked with the CCR since 2015.   In her free time, she enjoys being on the lake and spending time with her family.

Emily Drake has served in various roles within the Dr. Sid E. Willams Center for Chiropractic Research since 2016 and currently is the Senior Manager of Grants and Clinical Trials. Within this role, she works to expand the department’s portfolio by seeking funding opportunities and providing support to the research teams. She also assists with the implementation of the department’s clinical trials and manages their success by implementing effective organizational strategies. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology from Life University and a Master of Science in Human Performance-Clinical from Liberty University.

Catherine Faust is an experienced educator and administrator with over 25 years of experience at Life University. She has served as Dean and Assoc. Dean of the College of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies (CGUS). Department Chair/Assistant Dean of the Sport Health Science program, in which she launched the UG exercise science and health coaching programs and the Master of Athletic Training degree program. She has experience in accreditation and curriculum design. She has served on many key University committees and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. As a faculty member, she primarily taught at the graduate level in the areas of physiological testing and cardiovascular physiology. She has also consulted on projects such as Helping America’s Youth Conferences and several other presidential initiatives. She has written curricula frameworks for the Georgia State Department of Education in health occupations, which have been adopted by the State Board of Education and implemented at the secondary level. She has given several invited presentations and conducted several research projects. She has worked with the HOSA organization both at the state and national levels. She has a strong record of community volunteer work.

Before coming to LU, she spent ten years in the clinical setting specializing in cardiac rehabilitation and cardiology as both clinician and administrator. She also served as Vice President of Clinical Operations for Heart Alert, a telemedicine company specializing in cardiac monitoring. She developed patient monitoring protocols and was involved in research & development, which led to a successful FDA submission for an over-the-counter sale of a personal cardiac monitoring device.

She earned both her BS and MS from Eastern Kentucky University. She was a scholar-athlete on multiple Ohio Valley Conference Championship cross country and track and field teams. She was an All-American distance runner and has been inducted into numerous Hall of Fames (high school and college). She completed her Ph.D. in exercise physiology at Texas Woman’s University, where she specialized in exercise and nutritional research related to osteoporosis and sport performance. She served as both a research and teaching assistant during graduate school.