Pam Ferguson, Dipl. ABT (NCCAOM), AOBTA & GSD-CI, LMT
AOMA, once considered one of the top acupuncture schools in the United States, closed in April. At its peak, the school trained more than 300 students each year to master’s and doctoral levels. Unfortunately, like other acupuncture schools, AOMA has experienced rising costs and declining enrollment due to COVID-19.
The emotional closing ceremony on April 5th was attended by many alumni and teachers from the past 30 years, including founder Stuart Watts, outgoing CEO and President Mary Faria, and former co-owner Linda I heard Mr. Fontaine express his respect for the school.
They introduced David Lee, CEO of the Berkeley College of Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine (AIMC). He is renting some of his AOMA space to establish a satellite campus for his AIMC and will work with some of AOMA’s faculty and administrative members to ensure the education of current students. You can complete your training. This is not an acquisition or merger arrangement, as AIMC is his 501c3 non-profit educational institution.
We say goodbye to Austin features!
AOMA has evolved in many ways over the past 30 years in cities like Austin. Known for similarly entrepreneurial companies, such as Whole Foods (which grew out of a small grocery store) and Dell (which grew out of Michael Dell’s dorm room and his garage at UT Austin). Masu. .) Whole Foods, Dell, and AOMA all received Austin Fastest Growth Business Awards from Business magazine in 1999 and 2000.
AOMA’s gypsy origins date back to 1993, when founder Stuart Watts, DOM, M.D., sold SWAC in New Mexico and purchased DOM, M.D.’s John Scott Clinic, housed in a small house in South Austin. Dr. Watts actually created a living space in that garage.
He (and his ex-wife Annie) were driving around Austin in his pickup truck, and I remember the day he told me he could give me acupuncture and teach me from the back of the truck. .
The class evolved from the clinic in small groups of nine students. It was first prompted by State’s Attorney Leslie Myers. She later completed her LAc and joined the AOMA Board of Directors while organizing the annual CE seminar for the Texas Acupuncture Association. Stuart Watts hosted the annual South West CE Symposium. Gene Evans of Louisiana was there from the beginning, covering tables and running the front office, but then combined administrative roles with classes until he graduated in 1999 and went on to work at AOMA. operated one of the White Crane Herb Stores.
Stuart Watts, who had a knack for acquiring an eclectic faculty to teach acupuncture, herbal medicine, ABT, and establish student clinics, later imported talented professors primarily from Chengdu, most of whom were medical doctors. (China). Guoen Wang, Yuxin and Pan He, Dongxin Ma. Later arrivals included Drs. Xiaotian Shen, Yuxia Qiu, Zhongling Zhang, Yaoping (Violet) Song. Many private clinics have developed in Austin. Mr. Stewart also hired Dr. Raja Mandyam as head of biomedical sciences.
AOMA alumnus Robert Laguna, Los Angeles, MSOM (class of 1997) has been a faculty member for years, and his bilingual skills have been an essential asset in off-site clinics (more on this in my next column). (I’ll take it up).
Transition to integrated medicine
Stuart Watts sold AOMA to a partnership formed by then (2001) student Linda Fontaine. Linda Fontaine was a tenured university professor who went to China in the late 1970s, including one of AOMA’s long-term faculty members.
Subsequent presidents included former U.S. Air Force Colonel Jimmy Coombs, who helped lead the certification process. He will be followed by Will Morris, PhD, DAOM, LAc, and Betty Edmond, MD. Dr. Edmond and Dr. Faria (who joined AOMA in 2018) spent years as hospital administrators and moved toward developing a fully integrated training program, from the “Austin Academy of Oriental Medicine” to the “AOMA Graduate School of Austin Medicine.” About 20 years ago, the name was changed to “Graduate School” of “Integrative Medicine”. The move also honors the Asian American community’s desire for the organization to replace racist/colonial terminology. oriental and Asian. The familiar name “AOMA” lives on.
AOMA and ABT
In 1996 when I joined the faculty for development zen shiatsu and AOBTA-compliant ABT programs (including) Tuina and MQG), AOMA relocated to Village Center in north Austin and became a collection of offices and stores scattered around the delightful city. carp Pond and stone courtyard. At the time, the library was a closet above Stuart Watts’ desk.
In our class, QigongMy student clinic was always open to the community, especially when we acquired a nice corner space surrounded by windows for our dojo. Intrigued passersby stared, then wandered into the expert and student clinics for acupuncture, herbal medicine and ABT sessions.
AOMA relocated in 2010 from Village Center in North Austin to a beautiful, separate campus in South Austin with a courtyard and central fountain.
To this day, I still wonder why Stuart Watts is so unique among his peers in his obsession with good ABT as essential to acupuncture schools. Since AOMA is part of the organization’s School and Program Council, he insisted that all his ABT teachers become certified instructors in his AOBTA. His ABT program at AOMA allows students to earn his AOBTA certification and begin his ABT practice years before earning their LAc.
“The practitioner has to know how to touch and feel.” air. “It’s medical malpractice to put a needle in someone without doing a chiropractor,” Watts told me recently. For many years he has served on the AOBTA Board of Directors and currently serves as Treasurer.
AOMA leaves a strong and inspiring legacy beloved by an eclectic community both locally and internationally.
Editor’s note: Pam served as the Dean of Asian Bodywork Therapy at AOMA from 1996 to 2004 and continued to teach ethics classes until 2019. She recently donated her own teaching archives to the Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports at the University of Texas at Austin.
