Not many people go back to school at the age of 30 to start a new career, but that is exactly what Denise decided to do.

Denise Donaldson was born in Springfield, IL. She attended school there and graduated from Springfield Southeast High School in 1977. After high school she married a man in the Air Force and moved to Tacoma, Washington. The marriage didn’t survive, but from that union they had two beautiful daughters; Kerrie and Krysty. Soon after she met and married Randy Amundson in 1987. They now have five grandkids they dote on.

Denise first began working as a medical transcriptionist for a few doctors. She worked at that job for 15 years. One of the doctors she was transcribing for was a Chiropractor. As she learned more about Chiropractic from what she was typing, she decided she would like to be Chiropractic Physician and help others. She still kept her job as a transcriptionist while she went to Palmer Chiropractic School for eight years to get her degree in 1997.

After graduation, Denise and Randy decided to move to the Peoria area to start her own Chiropractic Office. Finding nothing she liked in Peoria, they began to look outside the area for a small town. One night they decided to go to the theater in Chillicothe. Looking across the street when they exited the theater, she saw a for sale sign on a vacant building. After checking out the town they decided Chillicothe would be a great place for her to start her new business. She first moved into the small building and townspeople began flowing in. Very soon she realized she needed a bigger office and found the previous Dr. White’s office vacant. She moved into that building on 2nd St. where she is still located today. Her clients love her and no one leaves after an appointment without one important thing, a hug!

Denise is very active in her community. She sat on the Chamber of Commerce Board for two years and then became President of the Chamber for two consecutive years and was named Chamber person of the year. She and her husband Randy are very involved in their church, Chillicothe Christian as Sunday school teachers, and also facilitate a small group. Denise is always helping in any way she can with community events, whether its fundraising, or volunteering her time and efforts. She has helped with the St. Jude Runs, HLC canoe jaunt, Community Needs Agency, the Town Theatre, and the Love in Action food pantry to name a few. She also volunteers at the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen in Peoria 2–3 Saturdays a month.

She was a competitive body builder for seven years, and now runs marathons,  recently running a 1/2 marathon along with all the 5K races she has run. She is determined to run a race in every state. As of now she has 11 more states to go. If that’s not enough, she also teaches fitness and cycling classes and a boot camp at her Fit and Fun building in downtown building on 2nd St. and heads up a running group!

Her passion is traveling. Besides going to Mexico, Costa Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hawaii, she has visited all 50 state capitals, culminating her states capitals with Hawaii on her 20th wedding anniversary with Randy.

Asked what she thought was her greatest accomplishment she replied; “Helping people with Chiropractic care.” Looking back she found she had helped over 14,000 people in her years as a chiropractor. She also related that losing 65 pounds and keeping it off for over 20 years was a major accomplishment.

When asked about her future plans she said, “I’m consolidating my two businesses. A&A Chiropractic will be moving to the Fun and Fitness building downtown. It only makes sense to have one building,” she said. “Retirement is still about 10 years out,” she added.

Whatever she’s doing, with her upbeat attitude, it’s always about trying to help people be the best they can be to live a good and healthy lifestyle. 

Denise is a great addition to our community. What a coincidence that she decided to see that movie in Chillicothe so long ago......or was it?