Core Team
The Acupuncture Workforce Alliance is a small, volunteer-led coalition of practitioners, educators, and researchers who share a conviction that the current acupuncture training and licensure system is failing students, graduates, and the patients who need this medicine most. We are doing this work on top of full-time clinical practices and jobs because someone has to. Our goal is not only to open new pathways to licensure, but to build the connections with government healthcare systems, employers, and community health organizations that will create real job opportunities for acupuncturists and ensure that employer need and real-world clinical reality are informing training standards from the start.
Dr. Rebecca (Bex) Groebner, DAc, LAc – Founder
Bex is a licensed acupuncturist practicing in Oregon and Washington, a former faculty member at the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM) and the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM) and the Clinical Program and Training Director for the Acupuncture Relief Project, where acupuncture is integrated into primary care in rural Nepal. She comes to this work from an unusual path: an undergrad in physics with research focused on fringe fingerprinting of gold nanocrystals, a decade as a chef, and years as a legal advocate for a domestic violence shelter. That background informs how she thinks about systems, data, and who gets included or left out. She is a past board member of the Oregon Association of Acupuncturists and a founding figure of the Acupuncture Workforce Alliance. She runs The Local Healer acupuncture clinic in Portland, where she works primarily with Medicaid patients, and writes the Substack newsletter Needling to Get to the Point.
Dr. Danielle Reghi, DACM, LAc — Oregon Lead
Danielle is President of the Oregon Association of Acupuncturists and owner of Zen Space Wellness in Oregon, where she employs approximately two dozen practitioners. She holds a master’s degree from OCOM and a doctorate from Pacific College of Health and Science, and has completed clinical work with the Acupuncture Relief Project in Nepal. Danielle has been vocal about predatory lending in acupuncture education and is herself a borrower defense claimant, making her one of the few people in acupuncture leadership with both institutional authority and direct personal experience of what this debt crisis actually does to practitioners. As OAA President, Danielle leads the Oregon campaign to diversify acupuncture licensure pathways through the Oregon Medical Board, bringing institutional credibility, community roots, and hard-won personal knowledge to the Alliance’s state-level work.
Dr. Debbie Yu, DAOM, AEMP, LAc — Washington Lead
Debbie is a licensed acupuncturist and owner of Little Si Acupuncture in North Bend, Washington, where she employs other practitioners. She holds a doctorate from OCOM and a master’s from Bastyr University, where she also served as clinical supervisor and faculty member. She holds a Diplomate in TCM Dermatology from Mazin Al-Khafaji’s Dermatology Institute. She has firsthand experience with the Acupuncture Relief Project community care model through a seven-week clinical placement in rural Nepal. Her parents are from Taiwan, where she returns frequently and this provides a connection that keeps her rooted in the living traditions of Eastern medicine. For Debbie, this medicine is inseparable from the culture that produced it, and preserving its integrity and authenticity is something she takes personally. That commitment is what brought her to this medicine and to the Alliance. She leads the Alliance’s Washington State campaign, where we are engaged in active stakeholder outreach around WAC 246-803-240.
Kelly Ilseman, MSOM, LAc – Editorial Review & Methodology
Kelly is Research Chair of the Oregon Association of Acupuncturists and a core member of the OAA Education Task Force. She holds a Master’s in Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, and East Asian Bodywork from OCOM, a Master of Human Nutrition, a Master of Science in Environmental Education, and a biology degree — and spent 17 years as Assistant Director of the University of Maine’s Upward Bound Math-Science Program, advocating for high-need students navigating complex educational systems before coming to acupuncture. Her research work for the OAA has included large-scale submissions to Oregon’s Health Evidence Review Commission, the CDC, and the Oregon Pain Management Commission on acupuncture for pain and behavioral health and she presented on acupuncture’s effectiveness at the 2024 Oregon Conference on Opioids and Addiction Treatment. She practices at Advanced Acupuncture in Lake Oswego and at Quest Center for Integrative Health. Kelly brings research rigor, a science background, and a lifelong commitment to educational access to the Alliance’s evidence base.
Dr. Ryan Hofer, ND — Regulatory & Policy Lead
Ryan holds a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine, a Master’s in Teaching, and a Master’s in Communication, and is a graduate of the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute. He is Executive Director of the Pain Relief and Education Collective and writes the Substack newsletter Debt by Natural Causes. Ryan studies the debt crisis in healthcare education — how it is sustained, who it serves, and what structural changes would actually alter it. He is the Alliance’s lead on regulatory analysis and policy development, and was selected by the U.S. Department of Education to represent student borrowers during the Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization negotiated rulemaking.