Dr. Erika Bliss is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree in History from San Francisco State University and a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Stanford.
She completed her medical training at the Swedish Family Medicine Residency Program in Seattle in 2003. After residency, she worked at Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center in Seattle, an FQHC, where she served as a staff physician, Clinical Site Director, and Director of Clinical Quality
Dr. Bliss has traveled extensively in Mexico and Central America. There she collaborated with a local women’s health and human rights group to do research, including a video project, on domestic violence. In addition, she developed and implemented a medical education exchange program with a rural hospital in Honduras. While in medical school, Dr. Bliss was a founding member of the Free Clinic Project of San Diego, a student-run project that delivers primary care to homeless and indigent people. Not only has Dr. Bliss focused on direct patient care, she has also been involved in organized medicine and health policy through her work with the American Academy of Family Physicians. Additionally, she served on the education task force for the Future of Family Medicine Project, a national effort to chart the direction of Family Medicine for future decades.
Dr. Bliss served on the boards of the Washington Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Board of Family Medicine.
Dr. Bliss helped found and later served as CEO of Qliance, the first large-scale DPC organization in the US, started in 2007. After Qliance closed in 2017, she established Equinox Primary Care where she is a solo practitioner. She also volunteers for End of Life Washington, helping people who want to take medications to aid in dying to avail themselves of the Washington Death With Dignity Law. She has conducted volunteer forensic medical exams for asylum seekers since 2005. And since the beginning of COVID, with access to abortion severely curtailed, she has been providing telemedicine medication abortion services.
Outside of medicine, she is busy lately helping take care of her granddaughter and spending time with family, as well as raising her 1 year old miniature poodle, Shaytun, who she hopes will become a therapy dog in her clinic soon.