One Georgia chiropractor finds that being the mayor can be a practice-builder, while simultaneously promoting chiropractic care

One important lesson Stephanie R. Grenier, DC, FICPA, learned as current mayor of an Atlanta outer suburb is that local politics entails much more than shaking hands and kissing babies. There are frequently contentious meetings to attend or oversee, impassioned opponents to outmaneuver, and the occasional mudslinger’s career-ending accusations to defend against. A second, and harder, lesson is that all of the above make it extremely difficult for a chiropractor to devote much time and energy to practice-building.

“I opened my chiropractic office the same month I was sworn in as mayor, and that was less than a year after becoming licensed and 18 months after graduating from Life University in Atlanta,” Grenier says, adding that she also took on the responsibilities of director of the drug-awareness committee at her son’s elementary school.

None of this is to suggest that success has somehow eluded Grenier’s practice, Quality of Life Chiropractic Center. It did well despite the circumstances, for it was Grenier’s good fortune to discover among her patients a woman who had recently completed chiropractic training, but had not yet affiliated with a local practice or opened one of her own. Grenier brought the young chiropractor aboard for a time at Quality of Life, which allowed Grenier to focus attention elsewhere. Still, Grenier believes the practice would be closer to achieving the volume goals she set had she not been so tied up with administering City Hall.

So, why did she run for mayor of the city of Auburn at such a crucial phase in her practice’s development? “I felt it would give me exposure and would generate community goodwill for both my practice and chiropractic,” says Grenier, whose practice is located 4 miles away in the neighboring city of Dacula (pronounced Dah-KYUL-uh). “I thought that my proactivity and positive mental attitude would have an uplifting impact on the city. And, I believed that being mayor would allow me to educate our state legislators about health, how our body works, and how chiropractic can help us reach our human potential.”

Grenier confides she also was attracted to public service because her nature is “to give, to love, and to serve out of my own abundance. I ran with a mission, much the same as my chiropractic mission, to make a peaceful happy community by improving the quality of life for all the citizens of Auburn. The way I see it, a doctor is first a teacher—and my goal was to educate my community concerning the importance of creating and living a safe and healthy lifestyle.”

Public Servant
Running for Auburn mayor was the farthest thing from Grenier’s mind when a school board member, who was a new acquaintance, approached Grenier at a neighborhood block party in 1999 to suggest she would make an ideal candidate.

Grenier tries to recruit politically active citizen John Nelms to run for mayoral office. Nelms explains that his doctor will not allow him to be an elected official for health reasons, as Auburn’s notoriously difficult political climate has seen 8 mayors in the past 10 years. Grenier takes the opportunity to promote chiropractic to improve his health.

“Auburn needed help, and this elected official felt I was just the person to provide it,” she recalls being told. “I had visions of this being a job like the one held by Andy Griffith in [his television role as the level-headed sheriff of the fictional North Carolina town of] Mayberry, so I told her I thought it would be fun to be mayor.”

A short time later, the chief of police reaffirmed that message and, likewise, urged Grenier to throw her hat in the ring. “I guess what persuaded me most was the realization that not many people get an opportunity like this to make a difference as the leader of their town,” she says.

In Auburn, the office of mayor is a nonpartisan post. As such, it wasn’t necessary for Grenier to declare a party affiliation to have her name placed on the ballot. Which was good, because Grenier isn’t sure whether she fits the mold of a Democrat, Republican, or something else entirely, since she embraces positions from across the political spectrum.

The election was held in November, 1999. Grenier won in a landslide, capturing 66% of the vote. Her sole opponent, technically the incumbent, had been elected as mayor only a few months earlier to fill the unexpired term of the previous officeholder.

Grenier’s term ends in December. Looking back, she says she feels good about her accomplishments of the past 4 years. “During my administration, the city has come forward by leaps and bounds,” Grenier beams. “We set goals, have achieved some, are still working on others, and have a few that we’ve yet to get to. The biggest accomplishment was when we made a lot of progress in turning around the city’s poor image. It used to be seen as a place with many seemingly unsolvable problems.”

Back to Backs
Challengers for the office have already declared their intentions, but Grenier won’t be among them on the campaign trail. She announced earlier this year her decision not to seek reelection. After a successor is chosen by the voters and sworn in, Grenier will devote herself to her chiropractic practice. “I decided I can help more people improve the quality of their lives to a greater degree with me as a chiropractor than as a mayor,” she offers. “As a doctor, I can impact them directly where it’s going to mean the most to them, their health.”

Assistant City Clerk Jessica Williams takes notes at a department head meeting while City Clerk Kirk Nylund briefs Grenier on the next city council meeting agenda.

Grenier doesn’t believe her roots from far north of the Mason-Dixon line had anything to do with her travails in a Southern political office. Originally from Wisconsin, Grenier briefly resided in Southern California, where she met her husband. Looking for a place more family-friendly than Los Angeles to raise kids, the couple in 1990 moved to the upper mid-Atlantic region. It was there that she took her first steps toward a career in chiropractic.

“I was 7 months pregnant with my son, working 50 hours a week on my feet selling sneakers in the mall when I went on a lunch break and saw a booth in the middle of the hall where some interesting models and literature caught my eye,” she says. “No one was manning the booth, so I browsed the displays. Just then, the chiropractor running the booth showed up. He offered me a chiropractic spinal screening. Afterward, he offered a complimentary examination and adjustment at his office.

“I went to see him a few weeks later at his office. I knew nothing about chiropractic, but I found the entire experience wonderful. I wanted to learn everything I could about chiropractic. I asked the doctor where he had gone to school and was given information on Palmer College.”

Grenier didn’t act on that information immediately. She had the baby and then, after a period of maternity, went to work as an assistant in a different chiropractic office. She also took prerequisite courses required for admission to chiropractic college (Grenier already possessed degrees in psychology and music from the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, class of 1985). However, plans to enroll at Palmer College fell apart after it became evident that no jobs would be available for her husband in his chosen field, electronics, anywhere within reasonable proximity of Davenport, Iowa. That led Grenier to apply instead at Life University on the advice of one of the chiropractors in the office where she worked.

“In Atlanta, my husband would be able to easily find work; firms were hiring like crazy there,” she says. “I’m glad things turned out this way because I had an all-around awesome experience at Life University. I was class secretary, elected president of the volleyball club, played in the Spinal Chords band, and graduated with honors.”

Grenier quickly grew to love both the climate and people of Georgia, so she decided to launch her practice there. Eventually, she and the family moved to Auburn, about midway between Atlanta and another major Georgia city, Athens. Grenier says she would have preferred to live and practice in the same town, but there were no suitable spaces in Auburn for the kind of chiropractic facility she envisioned. She found what she wanted with virtually no competition for the first 2 years, in nearby Dacula.

Grenier prepares practice member Stephanie Echols for her adjustment as volunteer assistant Jodie Mitchell observes.

Three Times the Charm
Quality of Life Chiropractic Center, as Grenier describes it, is a family wellness practice. Grenier also provides care to sports teams from local schools and community leagues. A marketplace advantage for Grenier is the certifications she holds in pediatrics, nutrition, and golf.

“Why did I opt to pursue those? Well, pediatrics is most important because, when we help children, the chiropractic care they receive increases their human potential and delivers them benefits that last an entire lifetime. As to the value of nutrition, that became obvious to me when I watched a video of a man’s third surgery on a 3-inch coronary artery where they continued to pull and pull on a string of plaque over 4 feet long that looked like string cheese—basically it told me, ‘eat the world’s foods, suffer the world’s ills.’ And, being the ‘Golf Doc’ is important in Dacula because we’re surrounded by golf communities—golfers will do anything to improve their score, and I am in a wonderful position to help them do just that.”

Grenier’s office is outfitted with a number of highly useful tools, including a thermograph-equipped subluxation station and digital posture analyzer to visually demonstrate the effects of structure on function.

Also helping her attract patients are customized care plans she has made available. “We offer care plans to suit a variety of needs so that people can benefit from the great results chiropractic is famous for, far beyond symptom relief,” she explains.

Among those plans is an arrangement called unlimited chiropractic care at a fixed fee, or UCCAFF for short. “UCCAFF allows a patient to pay up front for a package of care,” says Grenier. “It’s similar to what orthodontists offer, where you know at the beginning what the treatment is going to cost, and you can choose to either pay it in full at the beginning or space it out evenly over a number of regular payments. Patients appreciate this because it lets them budget their money. When they can do that, they’re less likely to skip appointments since it’s not going to matter if they don’t have money on hand at the time of the appointment. This also promotes better compliance and results.”

Grenier reviews Echols history and treatment with Mitchell. Grenier is Auburn’s first female mayor and the first of nine mayors to finish a term in 14 years. Her tenacity has explained her success, not only in politics, but also in her practice.

Grenier relies mainly on word of mouth to build awareness of her practice. She also generates visibility by writing a column on health issues for a local magazine (the column alternates with one written by another chiropractor from elsewhere in the same market). “I’m concentrating on practice-building through public relations in schools, subdivisions, health clubs, and golf courses,” she says.

Education is another marketing tool she uses extensively, both in her practice as internal marketing and through the auspices of the Greater Gwinnett [County] Chiropractic Council, an assemblage of subluxation-based wellness chiropractors of which she is president.

“Mainly, the message is that bodies are activated from within, that prevention is better than cure, and that chiropractic can enhance life beyond imagination,” she says. “As an organization, the chiropractic council conducts public speaking tours and spinal screenings. We also tender proposals to businesses and government entities throughout the county to assist them with health education through our wellness workshop series, expanded benefits packages, and workers’ compensation panels to increase the health, morale, safety, and productivity of their workers.”

Grenier’s overriding aim is to develop Quality of Life Chiropractic Center into a high-volume practice with associates and a full-time manager. Once she achieves that, it will give her the freedom to pursue another ambition: a return to political life. Not as mayor again, but something at the state or federal level, possibly as a chiropractic-oriented public-policy advocate or, perhaps, as a recruiter of other chiropractors for political office.

“Should I decide to get back into politics, as many have encouraged me to do, I will have more time to devote to it,” she says. “I’ll also have wisdom, experience, and credibility under my belt. My years as mayor of Auburn had their good points and bad, but I always knew that it was only a first step for me toward chiropractic politics. I’ve a whole world of opportunities to choose from. But for the moment, my only firm commitment is to my practice.”

Rich Smith is a contributing writer for Chiropractic Products.