A prestigious award given to a deserving chiropractic student has been named after a retired chiropractor in Palmerton.

ChiroCongress Cares has announced that the 2024 ChiroCongress Cares Legacy of Leadership scholarship will be named in honor of Dr. Louis Sportelli.

The Legacy of Leadership scholarship is a $5,000 award given to a deserving chiropractic student each year by ChiroCongress Cares.

It will be awarded at the annual ChiroCongress Convention to be held in Denver, Colorado, Nov. 14-16.

Dr. Sportelli is one of the early visionaries who believed that the profession needed a unifying organization that brought the state associations together under one umbrella and helped organize a gathering of leaders in 1969 that formed the Congress of Chiropractic State associations (ChiroCongress).

“Visionaries like Dr. Lou Sportelli have made our profession stronger and we are delighted and honored to recognize his contributions to ChiroCongress and ChiroCongress Cares by dedicating the 2024 Legacy of Leadership Scholarship in his name,” said Dr. Don Cross, ChiroCongress Cares’ president and ChiroCongress’ past president. “We are forever grateful for his vision and support of chiropractic state associations.”

Sportelli has served in many capacities throughout his 54-year career in chiropractic, and currently serves as president of the NCMIC Foundation, a nonprofit research and education organization.

He formerly served for 25 years on the NCMIC board, including 20 years as president of NCMIC Group, Inc., which provides malpractice insurance and financial services to more than 41,000 doctors of chiropractic in the United States and territories.

“We could not be more pleased to hear of the naming of the ChiroCongress Cares Legacy of Leadership scholarship,” said Dr. Wayne Wolfson, president of NCMIC. “Dr. Sportelli has led the way for generations of doctors of chiropractic and I can’t think of a better way to honor his significant contributions to the profession than this.”

Sportelli has lectured extensively on ethics, risk management and incorporating sound procedures to risk proof a chiropractic practice. He has a keen interest in patient education and wrote the book, Introduction to Chiropractic, which is widely used by doctors of chiropractic across the world. The book is now in its 13th edition.

He is often considered one of the profession’s media spokespeople and was featured in the 2013 chiropractic documentary “Doctored” and the 2015 documentary “Undoctored.”

Sportelli’s prior involvement in chiropractic nationally and internationally included in his serving as president of the World Federation of Chiropractic, an organization having nongovernmental organizational status with the World Health Organization, and as chairman of the American Chiropractic Association board.

Sportelli, who lives in Palmerton where he had his practice from 1962-2000, said he was humbled by the scholarship being named in his honor.

“They decided they were going to do a scholarship and they were going to pick people across the country that have contributed to the organization, and my name happened to pop up as one of the founders,” Sportelli said. “I’m impressed with some of qualities of the young students coming through chiropractic, it’s nice to have been around to see the success and the growth.”

Sportelli said it was 60 years ago that they started that organization, as there were no state organizations that were connected.

“It’s kind of interesting how it has evolved over the years into a very formidable way for states to communicate with each other and view various pieces of legislation,” he said. “The organization continued and has become a very formidable organization.

Sportelli said the University of Pittsburgh just approved a doctor of Chiropractic program, the first program of its kind in Pennsylvania.

Applications for the Legacy of Leadership scholarship will be accepted starting in April.

To be eligible to apply, recipients must be a full-time student enrolled in a Doctorate of Chiropractic program at an accredited chiropractic college or university in the United States. For more information about the scholarship or the criteria for applying, visit chirocongresscares.org.