Dr. JAMES ANDREW RIFE

Dr. Andrew Rife graduated from the University of Colorado-Boulder with an Environmental Design degree in Architecture. He has been actively involved in both design and building for 25 years and maintains a small business, Environmental Health Consultants LLC, which seeks to determine the health of our homes. Eventually, Dr. Rife’s interests became focused more toward health.

In 1993 he enrolled in a premed program at Seattle University. He spent several months afterwards doing missionary work in Calcutta, India with Mother Teresa. Then, after four years of rigorous medical training, he graduated from Bastyr University with a degree in Naturopathic Medicine. Today Dr. Rife practices primary health care and works on his environmental health interests at Puget Sound Family Health & Apothecary in downtown Tacoma.

Teaching and writing have always been very important to Dr. Rife. After all, the word Doctor is derived from the Latin docEre meaning, “to teach.” Dr. Rife has taught continuously for 10 years to medical students, masters and college level students, and on occasion to high school students. In addition, Dr. Rife has given many seminars and lectures throughout the Puget Sound area.

Dr.  Rife feels teaching is important because it exposes those outside of the healthcare field, or even those in more conventional health care settings, to choices they may not have known were available. To strengthen his teaching skills, Dr. Rife earned a Masters in Education in 2005.  Dr. Rife has also written professionally for several publications.

In his spare time Dr. Rife enjoys spending time with his family. His parents live blocks from his home. He has three beautiful, healthy children and a wonderful, loving wife who works as a public health nurse to toddlers. They also have two golden retrievers-one good, one bad. His family is active in outdoor activities and they frequently get away on their 1969 Dutch-built sailboat. Dr. Rife also spends his spare time restoring homes to their turn-of-the-century appeal.