The laws in the state of Washington are very stringent, requiring extensive clinical training and educational training in both western and Chinese medical theory. In order to be granted a Washington State License to practice acupuncture (L.Ac), the candidate must first take and pass a national boards exam given by the 'National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncturists'.

Each practitioner at the Community Acupuncture Project of Columbia City holds a Washington State License to practice acupuncture.

Angie Hughes

Angie Hughes completed her first acupuncture training in the UK in 1989. She then went on to get a masters degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine including Chinese Herbal Medicine in Seattle in 2002. She has over 20 years of clinical experience and has been teaching acupuncture for over 10 years.

Her special interest has always been community medicine and she has worked in many acupuncture clinics around Seattle, including the International Clinic at Harborview Medical Center, providing low cost treatments to communities that are normally excluded from complementary medicine clinics due to financial reasons. Other areas of interest include geriatrics and the treatment of chronic disease and stroke rehabilitation, women's health and chemical dependancy. She has worked for many years with cancer patients and in hospice care.

Angie is excited to have found and to be working within the 'working class acupuncture' model, and is especially delighted to be working within her own community in Columbia City with an ideal business partner/friend and colleague. For more information about Angie's experience, please visit her website at www.angiehughes.net

Sonja Sivesind

Sonja Sivesind began studying acupuncture and Chinese herbs at Touro College in Manhattan. She moved back home to Seattle and graduated from Bastyr University in 2008. Sonja has practiced acupuncture in many public health and community settings in Seattle including Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Clinic's High Point and Rainier Park Medical Centers, Harborview's Chronic Fatigue and Internationals Clinics, Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, Providence Mount St. Vincent, and Highline Cancer Medical Center in Burien.

Sonja staffed the Alternative Health Care Access Campaign for two years, coordinating the efforts of Naturopathic physicians, massage therapists and acupuncturists in providing free healthcare to homeless and low income people.

Before following the path of Chinese medicine, Sonja worked in several social justice organizations focusing on issues of prison abolition and education, queer and transgender justice and international solidarity. She is grateful for this opportunity to merge economic justice with community health care and is excited to be working with Angie and strengthening the momentum of a community acupuncture movement in Seattle and nationally. For more information about Sonja, go to: http://sonjasivesind.blogspot.com/