Meet the Staff

Bruce Ehrle serves as Executive Director of the Pierce County Medical Society, managing all aspects of Society activities and operations.  He has long ties to the Pacific Northwest having been on the staff of Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon in a senior capacity on Capitol Hill for over a decade.  Bruce also assisted with Wyden’s first run for the US Senate in 1995-1996, living in Portland, OR for the duration of the campaign.  In addition to his 12 years on the Wyden staff, Bruce’s time on Capitol Hill also consisted of two years on the staff of Rep. Jim Jontz of Indiana, a position he held shortly after his graduation from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

For a decade prior to assuming his duties as Executive Director of PCMS in 2015, Bruce was Senior Director of Government Affairs and Executive Operations at the American Health Quality Association where he advocated for improved health care quality across the nation with the White House, HHS, CMS, and Congress.  Bruce also planned and managed all educational and organizational events for AHQA.  Additionally, he was responsible for all governance activities of the association.  

He joined our community to partake of the high quality of life in the PNW while leaving behind the unhealthy environment of frequent gridlock in traffic as well as frequent gridlock in government, though he does make return visits to Washington, DC when he feels it's once again time to sit in a ten mile long Beltway Backup.  Bruce utilizes his health care policy and political experience from 25 years in the nation’s capital to assist physicians in our community navigate the complex changes underway in the health care system impacting the profession now at the local level based on initiatives that he witnessed being passed in to law back at the federal level in Washington, DC.  He also draws upon past duties to carry forward Society priorities in the areas of education, community engagement, and collegial events.

As part of the Society's activities, Bruce serves as President of Pierce County Project Access, an organization that pays ACA health insurance premiums for those with demonstrated need and that coordinates donated care from physicians and other providers for patients with no insurance, as Vice Chair of the South Sound Military and Communities Partnership's Health Care Workgroup that brings together the local civilian health care sector with military leaders from the large Joint Base to focus on care issues, and as Vice Chair of Community Health Care's Medical Resident Education Committee that administers the residency program at CHC's five large clinics that make up the health center.  He is also a member of the Tacoma Trauma Trust Operations Committee that oversees details of activities for the combined Level II Trauma Center at CHI Franciscan St. Joseph Medical Center and MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital.  Bruce co-chairs the Society's Social Determinants of Health Workgroup and serves on the Board of Directors of the Pierce County Medical Society Foundation as Secretary.  He has also guest lectured at the University of Washington about health care policy and the reality of the way things work in the federal government versus what is often taught in the textbooks. 

Just as he advises PCMS Members to take time for themselves, Bruce strongly believes that a busy professional life should be balanced by a robust personal life filled with active pursuits shared with family and friends.  Some of his wide ranging interests include being an avid sports fan, fine art, classical music and jazz, history, Native American/First Nations art and culture, conservation of the environment, wildlife, and natural resources, astronomy, hiking, biking, the diversity of activities all over the Pacific Northwest, and travel throughout the US, as well as internationally to Canada, Europe, and the Pacific Rim.  Memberships and affiliations include the Tacoma Country and Golf Club, YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, University of Michigan Alumni Association/UM Club of Seattle, and as an active participant in the New York City arts community, donor support to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art.