About our Founder:

Cynthia L. Morgan, MD, MPH, FACPM, DipABLM

Cynthia L. Morgan, MD, MPH, founded the Ozark Center for Lifestyle Medicine on Labor Day in 2020 and served as its Executive Medical Director for over five years. After serving thirty years as a Preventive Medicine and Public Health specialist in Bangladesh, as a medical missionary, she was eager to apply the power of prevention to help avert needless suffering in northwest Arkansas as well. To that end, in 2019, she was among the first physicians in Arkansas to become board certified in Lifestyle Medicine. She then started OCLM as a nonprofit organization to share the good news of the power of Lifestyle Medicine to not only prevent, but to also effectively manage, and even reverse a wide range of chronic diseases.

OCLM benefited greatly from a seed grant provided by the Presbytery of Arkansas and was able to initiate its Access-for-All Fund, to help make its services financially accessible to all, due to the generosity of the Glen Conklin Charitable Foundation. A portion of all donations to OCLM help keep this fund growing, as accessibility is one of OCLM’s guiding principles. Grants from Sparks for Life, the Ardmore Institute for Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation, and generous donations from many others have allowed the organization to thrive.

Dr. Morgan provided intensive lifestyle medicine therapeutic care for patients from March 2021 until December 2025 at the OCLM clinic in Fayetteville. Her initial patient visits lasted 2-3 hours and follow-up visits were 60-90 minutes, allowing ample time for in-depth discussion and joint decision making. She ran monthly Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) potlucks from February 2023 until June 2026 and ran WFPB retreats in Eureka Springs with Chef Karen Gros from April 2024 - April 2026.

The founding Board of Directors were Callie Embry, PhD (Chair), Rev Dr. Georgia Senor (Vice-Chair), and Dr. Leslie Morgan (Secretary/Treasurer). After a year, Leslie Morgan resigned and the Board invited Jane Steinkraus, MSN, CNM to join them as Vice-Chair, and Georgia Senor became Secretary/Treasurer. OCLM also benefited greatly from the expert advice of three Advisors, namely, Chris Trosen for accounts and financial reporting, Stewart Morgan for website design/maintenance and promotional material development, and Les Morgan for strategic planning and policy development.

The OCLM Board of Directors, Advisors, and Dr. Morgan are all delighted that the mission and vision of OCLM will continue under the enthusiastic and competent guidance of Karen Gros who had been serving as OCLM’s Associate Director of Education and became OCLM’s Executive Director on June 29, 2026.