Meet Our Staff

WMI Instructors are experts in wilderness medicine education. With extensive experience in backcountry travel and patient care, they are engaging educators who teach from experience.

Brian Barrett WMI Instructor since 2000

Teaching in the medical field often involves instructing in a variety of environments. There’s the hustle of the emergency room, the speed of the ambulance and the chaos of the clinic. But for Brian Barrett, his classroom before WMI was much quieter than the rest. Then again, he was teaching in a cadaver lab. Despite the classroom setting though, it was his passion for teaching that really made him stand out with WMI and his experience in the wilderness that sealed the deal.

Brian's first experiences in the backcountry came while growing up in Wyoming. "When I was a kid, my parents were always taking us on death marches near Glacier National Park," he says. "The outdoors have always been part of my life." After heading off to college, he nurtured his love for the outdoors through backpacking and occasionally working as a rock climbing guide.

Before becoming a WMI instructor in 2001, Brian worked as an EMT and firefighter in Tucson, Arizona. When the itch to move back to the Wyoming/Montana area started nagging at Brian and his wife, Jennifer, they hit the road as soon as she found work in Lander, Wyoming. Soon after arriving in the small Wyoming town, a friend pointed him toward the WMI office as a good fit for his background. “I’d never heard of WMI before,” he admits. “It was a complete surprise and just kind of dropped into my life.”

After six years in his position, however, Brian has built a great reputation as an ambassador for NOLS and WMI. His commitment and dedication to instructing allows WMI to repeatedly run courses that exceed student expectations, and students consistently comment on his sense of humor, depth of knowledge, and enthusiasm in building scenarios. Also, in his entire WMI career, he has never declined a contract—all 98 contracts he has been offered, he accepted and completed. His amazing commitment to education and students earned him the 2007 NOLS Instructor of the Year award.

When Brian isn’t teaching the finer points of wilderness medicine, he enjoys climbing or backpacking with Jennifer and their dog, Pake. However, these days they have picked up a new sport to be obsessed with: surfing. Considering that his home in Lander is fully landlocked, it’s lucky for Brian that WMI sends him all over the world to teach. He recently got back from Malaysia where he and co-instructor John Hovey hit the surf after teaching Wilderness Advanced First Aid and Wilderness First Responder courses.