Dr. CJ Rhoads, Tai Chi Bio

As of February 2024

Dr. CJ  Rhoads has been a pillar of the Tai Chi community for many years.  She started studying T'ai Chi Ch'uan (Taijiquan) more than thirty years ago, and has been involved in all aspects of the martial art and integrative health practice.  Rhoads has studied with the following teachers (in alphabetical order) each between four and twenty years each: Betsy Chapman, Sara Gellhorn, Steve Higgins, Janet Louise, Rick Marth, Maggie Newman, and Yang Yang.

She has also traveled extensively to attend Tai Chi workshops and camps with some of the world's foremost experts including: Li Deyin, Ben Lo, Nick Gracenin, Ma Hailong, Yang Jwing Ming, Wolf Lowenthal, Zeng Nailiang, David Chen, William CC Chen, Bill Phillips, Jou Tsung Hwa, Peter Warr , John Painter, Wu Wenhan, Wu Kwong Yu , Sun Yongtian, Cheng Xianhao, Yang Zhenduo, Chen Zhenglei and many others. She has been running her own Tai Chi Festivals and Symposiums since 2002.  She has also lent organizational support and conducted workshops at Master Jou Tsung-Hwa Tai Chi Festival since 2005, and Tai Chi Gala since 2004. She has been involved in numerous other events such as Zheng San Feng Festival, World Congress on Qigong Tai Chi TCM & Natural Healing, World Federation of Integrative Health Societies, Fellowship of United Martial Artists, A Taste of China, Taiji Science Federation, International Medical Tai Chi and Qigong Association, and the National Qigong Association.

Rhoads has also presented at many premier academic events related to Tai Chi and Integrative health.  In 2006 she presented at the first academic conference focusing on tai chi as a health treatment in Thunder Bay, Canada, at the International Taijiquan Forum. Three years later, she was part of the Academic Committee of the the ground-breaking International Taijiquan Symposium of 2009. The conference was ground-breaking because it was the first time academic researchers and traditional tai chi teachers appeared together on an academic panel focused on developing an understanding of why tai chi helps people who are chronically ill or in pain. In 2018 at the world-class International Congress on Integrative Medicine & Health she presented her pain-freeing qigong.  Then, at the eminent 2023 Science of Tai Chi and Qigong as Whole-Person Health Conference by the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Harvard University Medical School and Brigham & Women’s Hospital Rhoads presented the same pain-freeing qigong along with recruiting six other presenters for the inaugural event.

Rhoads is one of the founding members of the Taijiquan Enthusiasts Organization, a worldwide virtual organization of health and martial arts players and advocates dedicated to spreading the health benefits to everyone, now a program of Health, Prosperity, and Leadership (HPL) Institute. She works closely with Bill Douglas and Angela Wong, founders of World Tai Chi and Qigong Day who are both board members for HPL Institute.  She was advisor for the Tai Chi Club of Kutztown University for over ten years. She is also the developer of Pacem In Vita, a leadership and self-development curriculum for children and adults based upon the principles of Taijiquan.  In 2021 she was awarded the Leadership of the Year by World Congress on Qigong Tai Chi TCM & Natural Healing. In 2018 she was recognized by Tai Chi Gala for Excellence in Spreading and Teaching Taijiquan.  In 2010 she was named Taijiquan Promoter of the Year and admitted to the Martial Artist Hall of Fame by the Fellowship of United Martial Artists in Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Rhoads holds certification at the Instructor II level in the Canadian Taijiquan Federation, one of the few organizations in the world that certify Taijiquan teachers independent of style.  She has also been certified as a teacher by her current Sifu, Betsy Chapman. Furthermore, she's been certified by D'Youville College in the Tai Chi/Qigong for Veterans program. She is a professional member of the American Tai Chi Association, and has been a professional member of the National Qigong Association (NQA) and a member of the NQA Research and Education Committee (which she chaired for many years).

In the past, Rhoads has competed in the International Chinese Martial Arts Tournament circuit including traveling to Periguix, France, [where she lost to a tiny elderly woman from the Bronx], but taking multiple Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals in regional tournaments in Florida, Baltimore, and Washington DC.  In October 2009 she was named the United States National Champion and Gold Medal winner in Female Push Hands [admittedly because no one else in her weight class showed up to compete that year J].

Rhoads has firsthand experience regarding the transforming powers of the gentle art of Tai Chi.  In 2002 she was injured in a devastating car accident.  In 2004 she was told by doctors that she had gotten "as good as she was gonna get" – but was still in severe pain, suffered memory and other brain injury problems, and could not work effectively.  Just a few years later, with the help of a team of doctors and pain management specialists, and through a combination of Taijiquan, Pilates, Massage, and Myofascial Release she was able to mitigate her injuries. She was not only able to return to work, but was able to exceed all expectations. She was named by Governor Rendell's administration one of Pennsylvania’s Best 50 Women in Business in 2009, and awarded the coveted Athena Leadership Award by the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce in 2011, named one of the 25 Most Influential Women in the Lehigh Valley in 2013, and Top Faculty Researcher of the Year in 2014, the same year she was promoted to Professor at Kutztown University.  

Rhoads is a prolific and well-known author, with ten books, and over 250 articles published over the years, many on Tai Chi topics. Ten years after her accident, she revised her business plan and dedicated her business (HPL Consortium, Inc.) and non-profit organization, (Health, Prosperity, and Leadership Institute), to building an infrastructure that would support the needs of people who need integrative health services and to help community organizations utilize Tai Chi and other integrative health practices.  She also started a research group called Asklepios that publishes studies on Tai Chi and Qigong.  They have supported and promoted fifteen highly regarded articles in the field of integrative health, most of which are on tai chi or qigong.