Cordero and Key Leaders Resign from ICA Amid Governance Crisis
Originally published: 2025-10-14
Mass Exodus of ICA Leadership
The International Chiropractors Association (ICA) is once again facing a moment of reckoning. Recent days have seen a wave of resignations across multiple levels of the organization’s leadership, including its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Edwin Cordero, several members of the Board of Directors, Representative Assembly members, and a number of long-standing ICA members.
While the ICA has not released any official statements, the departures appear to center on deep concerns about governance, accountability, and the philosophical direction of the ICA, particularly its continued support of the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC).
CLICK HERE for more on that story
“This is not a dispute about policy, it’s a struggle for the soul of the chiropractic profession.”
Governance in Question
The ICA has spent much of the past year mired in controversy over its internal structure and leadership authority. The creation and operation of a Chief Executive Officer position have been widely questioned by members, as the ICA’s own bylaws contained no explicit reference to such a role. The absence of this position within the governing documents raised significant concerns about the legitimacy of actions and decisions taken under that title.
The controversy surrounding the CEO position traces back to its creation with Dr. Stephen Welsh, who was appointed to the role despite the lack of any bylaw authority for such an office. During his time as CEO, allegations of election interference, mismanagement, and the circumvention of proper oversight emerged, culminating in formal complaints from multiple members regarding a disputed Georgia Representative Assembly election.
Despite these events, Welsh was later added to the ICA Board of Directors, and only afterward was Dr. Cordero brought in to assume the CEO role in an effort to stabilize the organization. In his brief tenure, Cordero had breathed new life into what is one of the oldest trade associations in chiropractic history. However, beneath the surface, the ICA was struggling with significant governance issues that it refused to address.
“Leadership cannot be built on a foundation of secrecy and procedural shortcuts.”
A Philosophical Divide
Underlying the governance issues is an even deeper ideological conflict over the ICA’s relationship with the WFC and its alignment with international health entities such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN). Many within the ICA view these partnerships as fundamentally inconsistent with chiropractic’s principles of autonomy, informed consent, and natural health care.
For decades, the ICA’s involvement with these organizations has raised red flags among members who believe that global health policy frameworks, especially those linked to the WHO, prioritize pharmaceutical and vaccination-based approaches that conflict with chiropractic’s commitment to non-invasive, patient-centered care.
Concerns have also been raised about the ICA’s complicity with WHO on issues of bodily autonomy and vaccine mandates, particularly in light of global policy trends that threaten individual choice and practitioner independence.
“Why is the ICA lending its voice to organizations that do not share its philosophy of health freedom and informed consent?”
Adding to the tension is the growing perception that the United States itself has distanced its support from the WHO and the UN over questions of sovereignty and accountability. Yet the ICA, an American-based association, continues to lend its credibility and name to those same global entities through its connection to the WFC.
For defenders of the status quo, the justification has long been that the ICA “needs a seat at the table.” But decades of participation have yielded no meaningful influence, only compromise of principles. The WFC continues to marginalize the management of vertebral subluxation while promoting pain-based, medicalized models of care.
“The ‘seat at the table’ strategy has failed miserably, leaving chiropractic’s core principles sidelined in favor of political acceptance.”
The Hidden Hand: The Chiropractic Summit Group
Compounding these tensions is the ICA’s participation in the Chiropractic Summit Group, a secretive coalition that includes the NBCE, CCE, FCLB monopolies and other organizations that collectively exert enormous influence over the profession’s regulation, education, and direction. The Summit meets privately, without membership transparency or published proceedings, making it virtually impossible for ICA members to know what decisions are being made in their name.
Many see the Summit as the operational core of the chiropractic cartel, a system that prioritizes conformity over philosophy, regulation over innovation, and institutional control over individual practitioner freedom. The ICA’s continued involvement has long been a point of contention, particularly for those who view it as an abdication of the association’s independence.
“The Chiropractic Summit Group operates in the shadows, and the ICA’s participation only deepens its entanglement in the cartel’s web of control.”
Echoes of the Past
For long-time observers, this turmoil feels familiar. In the early 1990s, the ICA faced a similar crisis when it withdrew from the WFC and then quickly reversed that decision, triggering the resignation of several prominent leaders and the departure of more than 700 members. That event marked one of the darkest chapters in the association’s history, and many fear history is now repeating itself.
“In times of compromise, integrity is the first casualty.”
Where the ICA Goes From Here
The resignations of Dr. Cordero and others mark more than a leadership transition, they signify a crisis of identity for one of chiropractic’s oldest institutions. The ICA must now decide whether it will reclaim its founding principles or continue its slow transformation into a politically compliant organization indistinguishable from the entities it once opposed.
What happens next will determine whether the ICA can survive as a voice for principled, subluxation-centered chiropractic, or whether it becomes another casualty of the chiropractic cartel’s long reach.
“Without accountability and reform, the ICA risks losing not only its leaders, but its very identity.”
