About the Acupuncture Workforce Alliance

The Acupuncture Workforce Alliance is a volunteer-driven coalition working to build a thriving, sustainable acupuncture workforce in the Pacific Northwest: one large enough and financially accessible enough to meet the region’s growing need for pain management, behavioral health, and integrative care, particularly among Medicaid patients and underserved communities.

We formed because the pipeline is failing. Acupuncture training in Oregon and Washington is expensive, geographically limited, and increasingly at risk of losing access to federal financial aid. Students who make it through graduate with debt loads that make financial survival difficult. And on the other side of that pipeline, there aren’t enough jobs waiting for them.

We believe both of those problems are solvable, but not by acupuncturists alone.

What Makes Us Different

Most advocacy in acupuncture education has been led by academics and professional associations deciding among themselves what training should look like. We think that has to change.

The Acupuncture Workforce Alliance is committed to bringing employers into that conversation: health systems, community health centers, tribal health programs, FQHCs, integrated clinics, and others who employ or could employ acupuncturists. To our knowledge, no organization has systematically asked employers what makes an entry-level acupuncturist hireable, what gaps they see in new graduates, or what they would need to create more acupuncture positions. We are starting to ask those questions now.

We also recognize that many acupuncturists want to be self-employed, and we want to support that too. Building a thriving workforce means creating multiple viable paths: employed positions within larger systems, community acupuncture models, integrated practice settings, and independent practice. All of those require a training pipeline that works.

Our Focus

Right now our work centers on three things:

Licensure pathway reform. We are advocating for amendments to Oregon’s OAR 847-070-0016 and Washington’s WAC 246-803-240 to diversify acupuncture licensure pathways away from sole reliance on a single accreditor. Every existing pathway stays intact. We want the current pathway to continue to exist and are also working to make sure there is a legal pathway left because the current one is at risk.

Employer engagement. We are building relationships with employers across the Pacific Northwest to understand what workforce-ready acupuncture training actually looks like from the hiring side, and to support employers in understanding what it takes to make acupuncture positions financially sustainable within their systems.

Workforce-centered education. We believe acupuncture training should be designed around what the workforce actually needs, including input from employers, state healthcare systems, and community partners. We are exploring what that looks like in Oregon and Washington, including whether existing educational institutions could become partners in building more accessible, job-connected pathways.

Where We Are

We are a new organization finding our footing while doing significant work entirely on volunteer time. Our policy campaigns are active. Our employer outreach is just beginning. Our relationships with state agencies and educational institutions are in early development. Our fundraising and grant development is a priority we are actively building toward, and if you have experience in healthcare workforce funding or grant writing and want to help, we want to hear from you.

We are not waiting until we have resources to do this work. We are doing it now because we don’t have time to wait.

Who We Work With

The Acupuncture Workforce Alliance works alongside the Oregon Association of Acupuncturists, the Washington state acupuncture community, allied health organizations, state agencies, and anyone committed to building a healthcare workforce that actually serves the people who need it most.

If you are a licensed acupuncturist, a student, an employer, a policymaker, or an ally, there is a place for you here.