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Faculty

Faculty180 – Vita and Individual Profile Data Sheet

Vanessa Smith, DACM, BS, L.Ac

Fall 1980 - Fall 2120

Instructor I

Interprofessional Education Department

VanessaSmith@scuhs.edu

Current Position

Position: University Faculty

Biography

A licensed Acupuncturist, Dr. Vanessa Smith received her Doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from Southern California University of Health Sciences as well as a BA in Communicative Sciences and Disorders from Cal State University Fullerton (CSUF). She was part of the inaugural DACM cohort in the Eastern Medicine Department here at SCU and further went on to earn a Diplomate in Oriental Medicine through the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. She has taught in the Interprofessional Education Department since 2017 and the Ayurvedic Medicine Department since 2022, bringing her passion for interprofessional education and her knowledge of integrative health in practice. When not teaching, she is seeing patients full time at her private clinic, Horning Chiropractic and Acupuncture in Laguna Hills, Ca. where she sees patients from all walks of life. Specializing in Orthopedic Acupuncture, she offers patients an effective option for pain management and an integrative approach to sports recovery, rehabilitation, and wellness care. Horning Chiropractic and Acupuncture is a private practice rotation (PPR) location where Chiropractic students have the opportunity to learn and refine both clinical and business skills.  

Professional Licensures (Healthcare)

LAc, California, United States, 18153, Active, 2018, November 2025, 1992299440

LAc, California, United States, AC 18153, Active, 2018, November 2025, 1992299440

Certifications (Healthcare)

National Certification Commission of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Diplomate, Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, NCC169118, 2023-11-30, 2024-11-30

Work Experience

2019 - 2021

Acupuncture Clinician, Southern California University of Health Sciences, Whittier, California, United States

2017 - Ongoing

Instructor, Southern California University of Health Sciences, Dana Point, California, United States

Owner and Clinician, Horning Chiropractic and Acupuncture, Dana Point, California, United States

Scholarly Contributions and Creative Productions

Case Study

Completed/Published

Smith, V. Acupuncture for Smoking Cessation: A Case Study ; 2017; p 54.

Hear from the Students Who’ve Been in Your Shoes

I chose SCU when looking for a PA program because of their Integrative Medicine approach. I am from Michigan, and not many programs focus on this Integrative, Holistic approach when it comes to patient care in the Midwest, and I felt that was very important for me to learn as a future provider. My transition to semi-virtual learning has been very smooth and quite enjoyable. [su_accordion][su_spoiler title="Read More..." open="No"]My favorite part about attending SCU is how tight-knit and diverse the community is. Coming from a large undergrad university and moving so far, it was very important for me to have a PA program that made me feel valued and invested in my success. At SCU, they do a great job of making you feel that.[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]

Brianna Hadley

MSPA Class of 2022

One of the great things about SCU is we do have a campus layout, so all your classes aren't in a single room. We have our cadaver lab. We have different specialty rooms for physical assessment classes vs. acupuncture classes. All our acupuncture-specific classes have all the herbs in the room. You can pull out the herbs and look at them, whether in class or in between classes to get that extra studying in.[su_accordion][su_spoiler title="Read More..." open="No"]My favorite part of SCU is the collaboration from our beginning terms. We were working alongside chiropractor students, PA students, and ayurvedic students. It's a unique community where we get to learn about these different fields and sit in classrooms with them and work with them in the clinic. It allows you to get an understanding of all the different fields and how they can work together, and what is unique about your field. I think that is a wonderful aspect that I didn't think was going to be as prominent as it is here; even now, in my upper term classes and I am not in class with chiropractic students, I can still reach out to them about a certain aspect I may not understand or if I am working on a case. I want another perspective I know I have them to reach out to, so that has been a great networking community to have resources for.[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]

 

Dr. Jamie Kuljis

Graduate, Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

"There are a lot of things that I love about the program at SCU. The first one is that the faculty come from a long line of Ayurvedic knowledge deeply rooted in ancient classical text. They studied Ayurveda, but they also lived it. When you learn from people who embody this wisdom, it's much easier to grasp this knowledge. The second thing I love is the camaraderie within the cohort. The combination of the training, supportive faculty, and the support of my peers and classmates has given me the confidence I need to start my own practice."

Portia Harris

Student, Ayurveda Program

Some of my favorite courses at SCU have to be the chiropractic procedure classes; those are the classes you get to hone in on your chiro skills, your palpation skills and ultimately work on the adjustments that make you a chiropractor. Those are the classes I feel enhance my knowledge the most and are some of the reasons I chose to become a chiropractor here are SCU.[su_accordion][su_spoiler title="Read More..." open="No"]On top of chiropractic procedures classes, my favorite is the cadaver lab experience. The cadaver classes opened up my perception of what the human body is made up of. It allowed me to get an in-person perspective of how the body works and looks on the inside. I am genuinely thankful for those experiences because they opened and broadened my horizons to the human body and anatomy in general.[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]

 

Jordan Vega

Student, Doctor of Chiropractic

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