Executive Director

Dr. Carolyn Rowley is the Founder and Executive Director of the Cayenne Wellness Center and Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to health and wellness. As Executive Director, she specializes in nutrition (well known for her 3-4-4 nutritional program), health psychology, and treating patients and their families with sickle cell disease. She also began another non-profit organization in 2005 due to her missionary experience in Kenya, East Africa: The Machao Orphanage Foundation.

Twelve years ago, Dr. Rowley responded to an immediate need – to house 13 children in the foundation. Her first strategic plan; afforded her the vision to build the dorms, latrines, and other buildings to provide clean water, to put in solar panels, to provide food by building a greenhouse and chicken coop, and to put in solar irrigation — over a seven-year timeframe. Her second strategic plan; led her to take care of more orphans strategically and positioned the orphanage to be sustainable and economically self-reliant by 2020.

As a result of her travels to Kenya, Dr. Rowley desires to leave her legacy by forming a collaborative with the U.S. and Kenya to create a surveillance program, newborn screening, access to treatment, and best practices for the management and treatment of sickle cell disease.

Dr. Rowley holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Psychology from Loyola Marymount University, a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and a nutrition certificate from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Dr. Rowley has teaching experience from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIU-C), CSU Channel Islands, and Alliant University, and currently teaches at UCLA Extension. She is a committed environmentalist and vegan and has brought an understanding of the importance of nutrition in dealing with sickle cell disease. She has served as a panel member for a number of forums for the general public and for medical professionals regarding successful living with sickle cell disease.

Dr. Rowley was also a regular guest host on an award-winning cable show: Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith. In her efforts to bring about awareness about sickle cell disease, Dr. Rowley spearheads “The Faces of Sickle Cell Disease: An Educational Traveling Photo Exhibit,” which encompasses photographing 500 persons with sickle cell disease across the United States. In 2007, Dr. Rowley was awarded Person of the Year for it at the NIH (National Institute of Health) and the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. 35th Annual Convention in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Rowley enjoys cooking with hopes of opening her own restaurant featuring international vegan cuisine. She enjoys landscaping, and her home won the 2011 award for Best Sustainable Landscape in California. She enjoys traveling—her favorite country is New Zealand. Most of all, she desires peace, along with genuine and impactful conversations with real people. She loves music – jazz – and has taken up lessons to play the bass (guitar and upright). On her bucket list is to sing backup, live in another country, and perform her one-woman play on the life of Nina Simone.

Dr. Rowley enjoys music, art, and the beach. Her faith sustains her, makes her whole, and orders her steps.