N E W A L U M N I BOARD MEMBER S
Dr. Susan Blaskay Carver
Giving From
the Heart
“I once had
great aspirations
to become
a marketing
executive, so
I attended the
University of
Michigan business
school,” alumni
board member
Dr. Susan Blaskay
Dr. Susan Blaskay Carver
Carver starts her
explanation of her introduction to Chiropractic. Just
after she worked her way through that first year, she
suddenly found herself unemployed and in need of
the funds to continue college.
She said that she went home one day after searching
for a new job and found her mother sitting in her
recliner. Her mother said to her, “I found a job for
you that’s close by working for some chiropractor. I
think they’re a bunch of quacks, but it’d be a really
good job since it fits your schedule.”
With her mother’s comments aside, Blaskay Carver
applied for the job and said that it “kind of seemed
meant to be,” as she was soon hired to work at the
practice’s front desk. She would take patients to the
treatment rooms where they would be adjusted by
the doctor, a Logan graduate, and various associates
who had graduated from many different schools,
including Life College of Chiropractic (as Life
University was known at that time).
“I watched people hobble in and then walk out. I saw
people who had headaches for 20 years suddenly
restored. There were children who were colicky
and couldn’t sleep, and women who weren’t able
to conceive, but all who came in left with their
ailments soon forgotten.”
22
Alumni.LIFE.edu | 2018
After graduating, Blaskay Carver returned to
Michigan and began working as an associate
for another LIFE alumnus who ran three clinic
locations. She then chose one of his locations and
began to truly entrench herself in Chiropractic.
After successfully working at the clinic, she realized
that she wanted to open her own practice and found
one in Livonia, Michigan that she could buy and
make her own.
However, when she told her employer of her
aspirations, he promptly fired her — right during
the small business loan application process. Blaskay
Carver says that she thought this would be a huge
setback, but explains, “I got a call from the loan
officer, and she said, ‘I’m going to give you the loan
anyway, because I think you’ve got what it takes!”
So, with her small loan, two used tables and leased,
used x-ray equipment, she got her start as the
independent practitioner that she remains today.
After that, as she puts it, “My life was plugging
along. I was running a more and more successful
practice, got married and had two children. And
the truth is, I never really gave a thought to Life
Chiropractic College because I was busy building my
own life.”
One day, Blaskay Carver got a call from one of her
chiropractic buddies in Michigan who invited
her to a meeting to discuss the departure of her
chiropractic hero, Dr. Sid Williams, from LIFE. She
then set off to her first LIFE-related meeting, and
it was there that she met LIFE’s current chancellor,
Dr. Guy F. Riekeman, who she said, “dazzled me.”
of her chiropractic champions pledged $100,000
each. While she could not pledge as much, she was
happy to give what she could at the time and gave
$10,000. She adds that she understood the gravity
of the situation and was glad to help, “Because they
need money, and they need it now! It was simply
part of Lasting Purpose — To Give, To Do, To Love,
To Serve — Out of a Sense of Abundance — and I had
to do it.”
She says that while she feels that she can never
truly express her gratitude enough to LIFE and
Chiropractic for helping provide her with the life
that she lives now, she does try to express herself
through philanthropic endeavors. She adds,
“Recently, I pledged $10,000 to the Lasting Purpose
pool, representative of our principles, to have
something beautiful for the students to sit by.”
Yet another effort that she has undertaken is helping
to fund a new x-ray room for the student lab. She
explains, “I do this because we are going to hire
these students as associates one day, and we want
them to have the best tools to learn with. Well-
prepared LIFE associates are the ones that I want in
my practice.”
Blaskay Carver says that one of her most cherished
chiropractic quotes is from one of her heroes,
Mother Theresa, that she feels perfectly sums up
Chiropractic: “Give your hands to serve and your
hearts to love.” Indeed, she has done exactly that and
shows her love through very generous donations to
help sustain her beloved alma mater.
Based in Livonia, Michigan, Dr. Susan Blaskay
Carver (1988 D.C. alumna and current alumni board
member) is a nationally board-certified family
chiropractor who has owned and operated her own
successful practice for over 25 years and strives to
improve her patients’ overall health and vitality
through modern chiropractic care. She has been
consistently voted “Top Chiropractor” by Hour Detroit
Magazine 2010-2016.
Riekeman explained that LIFE had temporarily
lost its accreditation (was eventually retroactively
restored), and its students were scattering since
they did not know what else to do.
“Not only was I interested in saving my school, but
I couldn’t imagine having all these students lose all
the years of their efforts during the hardest, but best
time of their lives,” she says of her reaction to the
news. The attendees were called to action, and when
they were asked for donations, she says that several
Dr. Susan Blaskay Carver
After witnessing so many individuals with their
health and vitality restored, Blaskay Carver knew
that this was exactly what she wanted from here
career — “being able to run my own show and also
help tons of people.” Within three months, she was
on the road checking out which chiropractic college
would be right for her, and Life Chiropractic College
was her first stop. When she arrived at LIFE, it was
in no way the same campus that exists today, but she
says, “I was none the less in awe and knew that I’d
found my home. I knew in my heart of hearts that
LIFE was the place for me.”