I first shared this story as the Education Task Force update at the Oregon Association of Acupuncturists annual meeting on October 11, 2026.
It starts in a canyon in Zion, with a river that carved through rock by finding the lowest place. It’s also the story of our profession right now. Acupuncture schools have been built on federal financial aid and student debt, and that structure is cracking. The question for us is whether we become the water, or keep trying to be the rock.
In this talk I cover:
* Why the Education Task Force asked whether we can teach the same things without all the debt
* What we learned from Oregon’s rules, from educators, and from a survey of employers
* Our June 5 proposal to the Oregon Medical Board’s Acupuncture Advisory Committee
* The September 24 federal hearing on our accreditor
* What comes next, including our plan to return to the Advisory Committee in December
Get involved:If you want to keep working on this with us, email the Oregon Association of Acupuncturists at info@oregonacupuncturists.com. Tell us you want to join the Task Force, or the committee, whatever it ends up being.
About: Bex Groebner, DAc, LAc, co-leads the Oregon Association of Acupuncturists Education Task Force with president Danielle Reghi.
