Robyn “Ra” Adcock, L.Ac., DACM served on the CSOMA Board of Directors from 2014-2016. During that time, she focused on engaging students and schools, developing a faculty membership category, offering continuing education events, and creating a series of regional conferences to help gather together the profession. She served as the California representative to the American Society of Acupuncturists (ASA) in 2016 and attended their first annual conference in New Mexico. She also serves on the California Acupuncture Coalition (CAC).

Ra practices at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital where she serves on the progressive Integrative Pediatric and Palliative Care Team (IP3) and also participates in clinical research in the pediatric oncology department.

Currently, she is the lead clinician for a 3-year, $3 million dollar PCORI study that will access the efficacy of acupressure to relieve the most common symptoms associated with cancer treatment. It is the largest TCM pediatric oncology study ever conducted.

“This is such an exciting time to be part of the acupuncture profession! It’s like Big Wave surfing right now. Every day, our medicine receives more attention and greater acceptance in America, which creates both amazing opportunities and tremendous responsibility. It is our duty to ensure that this medicine is integrated into the West with respect to its rich, 2000-year heritage and that it is positioned to support the next generation of practitioners and patients. There is no better way to do that than by engaging in our state and national professional associations and connecting with each other. Take action! Go deeper! Join CSOMA today!”

Prior to becoming a licensed acupuncturist, Sarah worked as a legislative aide in the Maine Senate and House of Representatives. She was a field organizer for the House elections and has experience as a grassroots organizer to pass legislation for healthy consumer products. She is now applying her legislative experience to further the acupuncture profession by serving on the Board of Directors for CSOMA.

Sarah has a B.A. in Biology from Colby College and her M.S. in Oriental Medicine from the Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College-Berkeley. She completed clinical internships at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and the First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. She has a private practice in Berkeley, CA.

CSOMA’s immediate past president, Tiffany Tuftee, LAc has been an active member in both state and national associations for the past 6 years. She was the president of her school government for three years and an active student director of American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) for two years, as well as an active student member of CSOMA prior to graduation.

Tiffany has a passion for the politics and practice of acupuncture and East Asian medicine and wants to move the profession forward with her advocacy work and drive.

Professional Director, Dr. Bruce Gustafson, DAOM, LAc., Dipl. OM, pursued his own passionate study of Eastern, Integrative Medicine and holistic disciplines, and worked in helping and healing roles for many years. He later started and ran a successful business before finding his way back to this magnificent medicine we all share. With a prior B.A. degree and work in Clinical Psychology, he then embarked on his acupuncture career, having graduated from the Emperor’s College DAOM Program with a specialized focus in TCM Andrology and Male Fertility.

Along with his background in Men’s Wellness and Chinese Classics methodologies, Bruce has received post-graduate trainings in many aspects of Integrative Medicine, while keeping a balance in our traditional foundations. In addition to his private practice, Acumen LifeCare, he loves teaching and guiding students, having served as a clinic technical supervisor, and he is currently the Associate Dean of the Masters’s Program at Emperor’s College. Bruce was previously a student member of CSOMA for 3 years, and he continues to be very inspired as part of the CSOMA Board and the work being done to help empower our members and our profession forward, to achieve greater recognition and success for all.

“We have all worked hard and followed our passions to become acupuncturists, and this is both an exciting and a critical time in our evolution as healers. Our profession and our medicine need positive and cohesive representation, so that we can continue to educate legislators, policy makers, Western Medicine professionals, and the public, in order to gain greater acceptance and expansion within the insurance, public policy, and health field arenas. As a Board member, my goal is to continue supporting our members, as well as the students of this medicine who will soon become practitioners, to help move our profession forward and grow its acceptance, so that we can continue to be empowered, and so that more may be able to benefit from what we have to provide for health and wellness care.”

Professional Director, Dr. Julie Tran-Olive, ND, LAc is a native of San Jose, CA. She earned a BA in Psychology from The University of Redlands in CA. During her undergraduate studies, she interned at the Loma Linda Behavioral Medical Center as a Behavioral Health Specialist. Inspired by the idea that there is more to healing than just changing brain chemistry, Dr. Tran-Olive decided to pursue a career in naturopathic medicine as an avenue to explore whole person healing.

Her studies took her across the country to Bridgeport, Connecticut where she earned her doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine and two Masters; one in Human Nutrition and one in Acupuncture; all from the University of Bridgeport. A firm believer in Hippocrates who said “Let food be thy medicine,” Dr. Tran-Olive trained with Dr. Peter D’Adamo, ND, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Eat Right for Your Type (The Blood Type Diet) at the world renowned D’Adamo Clinic. During this time she also became a Fellow of the Institute for Human Individuality (FIFHI). Dr. Tran-Olive is happy to currently be back home in San Jose, CA; where she completed her Masters of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from Five Branches University.

An avid researcher and clinician, Dr. Tran-Olive enjoys writing articles and keeping patients abreast of new treatment methods. She is the author of the eBook The Best Book on Naturopathy, a guide for starting a career in naturopathic medicine. When not researching or seeing patients she enjoys relaxing, music and spending time with her husband.

Christy Vitiello is Nationally Board certified and a California state licensed acupuncturist. She earned her Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco in 2008. She runs a private practice in San Francisco, with a specialty in non-drug pain management and sports injury rehabilitation.

Christy joined the CSOMA board to help educate the public, grow the profession, and advocate for the profession. She looks forward to the great work that can be done by a small group of people who care about advancing the profession in California, and nationally.

Dr. Kim Peirano, DACM, LAc is the Founder of The Integrative Healing Institute and a practicing Acupuncturist in San Rafael, CA. She is a published author, speaker and intuitive healer.

Dr. Kim’s treatments and offerings aim to access the deep inner workings of the mind-body-spirit connection to help her patients unlock the root cause of disharmony and help practitioners fully integrate their inner awareness into their treatment rooms. 

As an educator she sets the intention of her courses and presentations to help students inwardly reflect and draw on their own experiences, to become more complete and powerful healers and to learn new ways of looking at old problems.

Dr. Kim is excited to be serving on the board of CSOMA and has a vested interest in helping preserve the multi-faceted and unique essence of Chinese medicine as we move forward with further integration into the modern medical system.

Elly is a Student Director on the CSOMA Board. She is currently enrolled in both the massage therapy program and the Doctorate of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (DACM) program at Pacific College of Health and Science in San Diego, California. Elly had been drawn to Chinese Medicine, as many practitioners in the field, after her own experience with treatment.

Dr. Jordan Wheeler, DACM, LAc has been studying natural medicine for the last 10 years, first obtaining his Bachelor of Science in Herbal Sciences from Bastyr University in Seattle. He then earned his Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM) in San Francisco in 2013. Having completed the didactic portion of the Doctorate of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from ACTCM, Jordan has since switched to the transitional Doctorate of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine to focus on integrative medicine care.

Dr. Wheeler served as AIMC Berkeley’s Herbal Pharmacist and faculty member for several years before relocating to Colorado in 2019. A former CSOMA Board Director, Dr. Wheeler continues as editor in chief of the Journal of Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (JAIM).