Justin Padgett, WEMT

Justin Satterfield Padgett is Executive Director of Landmark Learning, a training service for outdoor educators based in Western North Carolina.. Justin holds a Masters of Science degree in Training and Development from Western Carolina University and is a National Registered EMT-Paramedic with an active role in emergency medical services since 1994. Currently he is affiliated with Westcare EMS serving the mountain communities of Jackson County, NC. Instructing of wilderness medicine since 1996, he also has over 15 years of trip leading experiences in the areas of mountaineering, rock climbing, rope course facilitation, rafting, whitewater kayaking, and caving. As an Instructor Trainer for the American Canoe Association and a
the Starfish Aquatics Institute, Justin is well versed as an expert in water safety and risk management. Justin has been a traveling trainer internationally in the field of outdoor education for the past eleven years and is well known for his presentation style, humor and anecdotes. www.landmarklearning.org

Mairi Padgett, WEMT

Mairi Stone Padgett is a Director at Landmark Learning. Mairi is a WEMT and wilderness medicine instructor with 17yrs of experience leading trips and educational courses in remote places. She enjoys small-scale homesteading practices (gardening) while rediscovering the outdoors through the eyes of
her two-year old daughter, Ellie - an avid flower-picker who looks just like her daddy(but cute!)

Sascha Paris, WEMT

Sascha Paris has been working and playing in the outdoors for over 15 years, leading and overseeing sea kayaking, backpacking and mountaineering courses in Baja, California and Alaska for UC San Diego, Outward Bound and an Oakland-based kayak guiding company. Currently Sascha is the Training Manager for the Sierra Club outings program designing and delivering trainings for volunteer trip leaders and program managers. In his ever-dwindling spare time he enjoys good coffee, hikes with his wife and brand new daughter, Sofia, and cycling to work over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Steve Platz, WEMT

Steve Platz is a Physician Assistant in Lander, WY. Before having a "real job" (where they keep track of how many days off you have) he taught for Cornell Outdoor Education, worked as an EMT Critical Care Technician, instructed for NOLS and called a storage locker home while traveling and teaching for WMI. Steve is best known for his behavioral problems lectures on WEMT courses. As a biology major at Cornell University the only thing Steve knew for sure was that he DID NOT want to study medicine. When time allows he chooses to kayak, climb and run.

Amie Podolsky, WFR

Amie Podolsky has worked as an outdoor educator since 1996. Her resume includes teaching at an outdoor science school, guiding backpacking trips, and four years as the program director of a wilderness adventure summer camp. She has an M.S.W. from the University of Denver and currently works with committed youth. She is motivated as a WMI instructor by her passion for outdoor education and wilderness travel.

Kelly Pyke, WEMT

Kelly has been working in the outdoor education field for over 10 years. She has been teaching for WMI since 2005 and loves the opportunity it provides her to encourage and empower students to serve others and pursue their dreams. Her passion for wilderness and international aid work has led her to many places throughout the country and around the world as a guide, ranger, educator and medic. Her current base camp is in Sisters, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, Eli

M. Shaun Quinn, WFR

Shaun Quinn has worked at NOLS since 2001 leading trips in sailing, whitewater rafting, hiking and sea kayaking at the branches in Mexico, Pacific Northwest, Teton Valley and Rocky Mountain. Prior to NOLS he worked as a raft guide in Colorado and West Virginia while maintaining an avid love for telemark skiing.

Atila Rego - Monteiro, WFR

Atila was the Assistant Director of NOLS Patagonia in 2002 and had helped sponsor the first courses in Chile. As a NOLS field instructor he has over 200 weeks in the field, mostly in whitewater, canoeing, and sea kayaking courses with NOLS IN Patagonia, Alaska, Mexico, Rocky Mountain and Australia. He mostly works WFAs for WMI although he is training towards working Spanish language WFRs. Atila is currently the program coordinator of the NOLS Amazon program and resides in Brazil. while not working for NOLS and WMI he can be found trying to maintain his rusty paddling skills or with his family in Rio de Janeiro.

Gates Richards, WEMT

Gates Richards has been involved in outdoor education and EMS since the early 90's. Over the years he's worked outdoor programming throughout the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He's worked urban EMS in Washington, DC, Seattle, WA, Gunnison County, CO and is an Intermediate EMT in Lander, WY. Gates began teaching for WMI in 1998 and now bears the title of WMI Special Programs Manager. In past lives he has been a dust collector, Rebel Without Applause, asthma researcher, and minor deity to a little-known civilization in the North Pacific. We're awaiting confirmation of that last one. Gates, his wife and their son live in Lander where they can be found biking, skiing and fishing. But not at the same time.

Rachel Knapp Richards, WEMT

Rachael started working for WMI in 2001 after having spent 10 years as a mountaineering instructor for NOLS and Outward Bound. Her mountaineering career took her to Chile, India, Alaska, China and beyond. Her time with WMI inspired her to return to school for a nursing degree, and she now works as an RN in the Maternal Health Unit at Lander Valley Medical Center. Rachael also sits on the board of the ABS Foundation in Alta, WY, working with grant seekers from around the globe. When she's not working Rachael can be found skiing, biking and playing with her husband and son. If you look closely, you'll notice that Rachael's son Finn bears a resemblance to her husband, also mentioned in here somewhere.

Pete Ryan, WEMT

Pete has spent his life in outdoor education. From summer camp staff as a teenager, to teaching in Colorado State University’s Experiential Learning Program as an undergraduate, to directing the Outdoor Adventures program at the University of San Diego, Pete has experience with many age groups and multiple disciplines. Along the way, Pete earned a BA in social science, and an MA in leadership studies. Pete currently makes his living as a firefighter-paramedic, and still finds time to teach rock climbing, mountaineering and avalanche courses with Mountain Adventure Seminars in Bear Valley, California. His favorite nut is the cashew.

"I've always had a passion for traveling in remote places and working in the wilderness," says Iris Saxer, describing a career that has taken her around the world. Her most recent adventure was four months in Antarctica studying penguin populations. While there, she was able to provide medical care to a co-worker who spoke only Spanish, reducing his shoulder dislocation since outside medical care wasn't an option."My wilderness medical training," says Saxer, "has given me the ability to calmly handle all emergencies, whether near or far from help."Saxer's interest in outdoor education began at Cornell University, where she taught virtually every course offered by the Cornell Outdoor Education (COE) program, eventually serving as COE's Associate Director. After nine years as a field instructor for NOLS, she finds WMI the perfect place to combine her passions. "I decided," she says, "that helping other people gain solid emergency care skills is the most worthwhile thing I can do as an educator."

Jake Schepps, WEMT

Jake began teaching for WMI in 2001, after five years of leading NOLS field courses. Jake now lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Gillian and young daughter, Lucy. When not standing in front of a whiteboard, Jake can be found skiing, kayaking, and riding his bicycle. Jake also functions as a professional banjo player, writing and playing instrumental stringband music. He leads a group called Expedition, which can be heard at www.jakeschepps.com

Mike Schiller , WEMT

Mike works for International Mountain Guides, LLC in Ashford, WA as Chief Administrative Officer and President of the Rainier Division. Mike is an Eagle Scout, Wilderness EMT, and graduate of a NOLS Outdoor Educator course. He has summited numerous mountains on five continents, and once walked from the lowest point to the highest point in the continental United States. Mike has a keen interest in outdoor leadership, wildflowers and wild edibles. Prior to joining IMG, Mike founded and was Executive Director of Venture Outdoors (www.ventureoutdoors.org), a non-profit whose mission is to promote outdoor recreation in western Pennsylvania. Before that he co-founded Confluence Technologies, Inc., a provider of software to the mutual fund industry. Mike is a native of Pittsburgh, PA, has a BSE in computer science from Princeton University and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Tod Schimelpfenig, WEMT

As a NOLS Instructor since 1973 and a volunteer EMT on ambulance and search and rescue squads for the past 30 years, Tod Schimelpfenig has extensive experience with wilderness risk management. He has used this valuable experience to conduct safety reviews as well as serve as the NOLS Risk Management Director for eight years, the NOLS Rocky Mountain School Director for six years, and three years on the board of directors of the Wilderness Medical Society, where he received the WMS Warren Bowman Award for lifetime contribution to the field of wilderness medicine. Tod is the founder of the Wilderness Risk Manager’s Committee, has spoken at numerous conferences on pre-hospital and wilderness medicine, including the Australian National Conference on Risk Management in Outdoor Recreation, and has taught wilderness medicine around the world. He has written numerous articles on educational program, risk management and wilderness medicine topics, and currently reviews articles for the Journal of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine. Additionally, he is the author of NOLS Wilderness Medicine and co-author of Risk Management for Outdoor Leaders, as well as multiple articles regarding wilderness medicine. Tod is currently the Curriculum Director of Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS.

Brandon Schwartz, WEMT

Best labeled as a general educator, Brandon has taught a wide variety of students ranging from 4th graders to college graduate students and adults. In his past he has worked as NOLS senior staff in Alaska and sailed traditional sailing vessels offshore in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Currently, Brandon spends his summers teaching WMI courses, preferably near high quality surf breaks and single tracks trails. Put skis on his feet and he turns into a machine, spending his winters as an Avalanche Forecaster at the Sierra Avalanche Center in Truckee, CA.

Since completing her master’s degree and transitioning into the outdoor world, Heather has led extended expeditions for a wilderness program in the high desert of Oregon and been a commercial mountain guide in California, Mexico and South America. She also instructs courses for NOLS in Alaska and the Rocky Mountains.

Mike Shaw, WFR

Mike has been working in outdoor education for the past 13 years. In this time he has led canoeing, kayaking, caving, climbing, mountaineering, backpacking, and dogsledding expeditions. He is a senior field staff at NOLS and is currently teaching Experiential Education at Albuquerque Academy. Mike has a BS in adventure education from Northland College.

Jayson Simons - Jones, WFR

Jayson hails from beautiful Crested Butte, CO, and began teaching for WMI in 2003. He first started working in the outdoor education field as an instructor and course director for the Colorado Outward Bound School. When not teaching for WMI, Jayson divides his ample free time between being a ski patroller, avalanche forecaster & instructor, and as an AMGA trained and senior guide for Crested Butte Mountain Guides. When free time does materialize, he does everything he can to ski, climb, drink beer, play music, and anything else outside under the sun and stars.

Brett Simpson, WFR

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Brett has been working in the field of experiential education for over 10 years. Brett currently lives in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania and is the Associate Director of a college based leadership training program known as Quest. In addition to running east coast based programs for Quest, Brett has led climbing, trekking and biking adventures in Peru, Mexico, Ecuador and Ethiopia.Prior to his time with Quest, Brett held a wide range of jobs in the outdoor industry working with other colleges along with organizations such as the US Forest Service and Outward Bound. Brett has worked for WMI since 2003.

Chris Sparks, WEMT

Chris Sparks spends most of his time outside, usually wandering the mountains and rivers as he backpacks, climbs, and fly-fishes. He has worked in public schools, outdoor science schools, and led backpacking trips and trail crews. He is a WEMT with a passion for trailwork, traveling, and anything out-of-doors.

Matt Stauffer, WEMT

Matt has brought his experience in the outdoors and medicine to the students of WMI since 1998. He has worked as an educator and leader for various companies, including NOLS, in some of the world’s great wilderness settings. His favorite topic in wilderness medicine is altitude illness after numerous expeditions to the high mountain ranges of Asia and South America. Matt is currently continuing his own education as a medical student at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Dusty Szymanski, WEMT

It all began very young, building treehouses and various forts in the woods. Two principles that have remained true, building and being in the wilderness. He bagan camping at the age of 2 and grew up fishing, camping with family and outdoor pursuits with a active Boyscout Troop. Dusty began a career as a Carpenter 20 years ago and found more and more time to hike, climb, and just be in the mountains. In 1994 he was introduced to NOLS through an outdoor educator course and returned to successfully complete a NOLS Instructor Course in 1995. Through NOLS he was introduced to WMI and feel in love with both the people and the dynamic teaching approach.
Dusty started with WMI in 1996 in Pitkin CO. The office was a few folks above a garage and a handful of brave road warriors. He studied and trained under the best teachers, Learning the WMI way of things. From town to town, season to season, year to year he taught all levels of courses and trained new instructors as they came in the ranks. He has taught all over the western US as well as India and Nepal. In the WMI off season Dusty has worked as a NOLS field Instructor, Outdoor educator for other programs and a Carpenter. Dusty lives in Gunnison, CO running his own small construction company and still teaches part time throughout the year. "Whether you are a student or staff WMI changes the way you will travel in the wilderness, interact with others and enrich your life as a human!"

Shana Lee Tarter, WEMT

Shana was a student in the first WMI course in July 1990. She joined the WMI instructional team in 1995 and currently serves as WMI's Assistant Director. She has had the great fortune of teaching for WMI in exciting locations such as Japan, Australia, Hawaii and Oklahoma. She is an EMT-Intermediate and volunteers with the Lander ambulance squad. In past lives she worked as the Associate Director of Cornell Outdoor Education, a NOLS Field Instructor, a geologist and an archaeologist (dug up 300 skeletons in one summer). She is learning Chinese in order to spend a year there teaching and doing medical volunteer work with her family.

Lance Taysom, WEMT-B, RN

Lance Taysom has many fun jobs: whether it is teaching Leave-No-Trace to Boy Scouts, intubating a trauma patient in the back of a helicopter or battling pulmonary edema at 17,200 feet. Working with WMI students is one of the most rewarding jobs I perform. Wilderness medicine lets me combine my knowledge of medicine with a lifetime of outdoor experience. People are interesting. Each individual has a unique and personal learning style. Helping someone grow from new experiences and learn to be confident in their ability to asses and manage patients, in all kinds of conditions, is a highly rewarding challenge.
I began teaching for WMI in 1994. What continues to attract me to WMI? The curriculum is based on real science. The instructor and administrative staff are skilled professionals who practice what they preach. The board of directors are recognized leaders in their respective fields of expertise. We teach sound principals, encouraging the students to apply their own experience and judgment when managing patients with serious injuries and complicated illnesses. On top of all that, they pay me for traveling to spectacular locations spending time doing what I love with my friends!

Ben Tettlebaum, WEMT

Ben grew up on a farm in mid-Missouri and has held a love for the land ever since. Since those childhood days on the farm, travels have taken Ben to every state and around the world. When not traveling, Ben attempts to cultivate stability usually somewhere in the U.S. He has been working in outdoor education for nine years. Work includes a stint as an interpretive ranger in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, a senior instructor at Second Nature Therapeutic Wilderness Program, and (some) time served behind a desk running the outdoor program at Mohican Outdoor Center for the Appalachian Mountain Club. Ben took time off from running around the wilderness to run around inner cities after starting a not-for-profit voter education organization in 2004. Currently, he keeps busy as a NOLS field instructor, WMI instructor, and running a few of his own trips with his project, Into the Green.

Tim Thomas, WEMT

Tim has been working as an outdoor guide and instructor for over 20 years, in locations ranging from Nepal to New Guinea. A native of Colorado, he currently calls Durango home where he teaches in the Adventure Education Department at Fort Lewis College. Additionally, Tim works part time for the Outward Bound & National Outdoor Leadership Schools, instructing wilderness medicine, mountaineering, rafting and sea kayaking. He also works on expedition ships in the Antarctic Peninsula as a naturalist as well as taking guest?s sea kayaking and camping. Ships work also finds Tim taking passengers on cultural tours off the West Coast of Japan.
Along with his many years in the field teaching and instructing, Tim is also an avid outdoor adventurer and traveler. Spending the turn of the millennia at the South Pole and summiting Mt. McKinley in Alaska are among his favorite achievements. Sharing his passions is his job. He has earned numerous guiding certifications and licenses and holds a bachelors degree in Japanese Language and Literature from the University of Colorado.

Buck Tilton, WEMT

Buck co-founded the Wilderness Medicine Institute and, although currently sort-of-retired, serves as chair of the WMI Medical Advisory Panel and teaches courses now and then. He writes a lot, authoring, among other literary efforts, the WFR text, which got an award for excellence in medical writing). He received the Paul Petzoldt Award for excellence in wilderness education and the Warren Bowman Award for contributions to wilderness medicine. He lives in Lander, not far from the office.

Julie Versteeg, WEMT

As a WMI instructor, Julie teaches both Wilderness First Responder and Wilderness EMT courses. She has a degree in forestry and started her outdoor career working as a forester and wildland fire fighter in NW Montana. She later worked in the outdoor studies program at St. Lawrence University, where she field-directed an outdoor immersion semester in the Adirondacks.

Julie also coordinated the outdoor program at Miami University of Ohio and continues to lead international expeditions to Mexico and New Zealand, in between teaching courses for WMI. She keeps her medical skills up to date by working as a ski patroller in Big Sky, Montana, during the winters."

W-Z

Amy Waeschle

Amy Waeschle spent 5 years working as a field instructor for NOLS and other outdoor programs before going back to school for a Master's Degree in Teaching. After a few years teaching middle grade science and math in a rural school, she missed the freedom and hands-on style of outdoor education and returned to NOLS to work for WMI. Currently, Amy is a Course Leader for the Wilderness First Aid program. She has taught for WMI in locations close to her home town in Mt. Vernon, Washington as well as in far-off sites such as Hawaii and St. Louis. She is an avid adventure-hound, with recent trips to Morocco for surfing and the Selkirk Mountains for backcountry skiing. Her latest adventure includes a sabbatical to Sicily, Italy, where she and her husband will live and work for 3 years.

Adam Wagner, WEMT

Adam Wagner has been involved in Wilderness Medicine since 1998. His passion for guiding has taken him all over the world. He has applied his skills as a WEMT in many environments such as jungles, the arctic, the open ocean, mountain environments, and the developing world. He has also held jobs on ambulances, foreign clinics, and with the ski patrol on Mount Hood. "I think of my certification in wilderness medicine as the platform that supports all the adventures that I go on, be it personal or guiding."

Rob Walker, WEMT

Rob lives in Bend, Oregon where he works full time as a Life Flight Nurse. Along with his partner, Karen Holm, he has bicycled from Seattle to Bolivia, paddled a home-built wooden sea kayak from Glacier Bay, Alaska to Washington’s San Juan Islands, and made the first complete traverse of Chile’s southern channels by sea kayak. When not on personal adventures, you can find him leading courses for the National Outdoor Leadership School and the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS where he has been an instructor since 1998. Visit his website at: www.mountainminded.com.

Terri Watson, WEMT

Terri began working for NOLS as a field instructor in 1990, and as a WMI instructor in 1997. She teaches WFRs and WFAs, as well as a handful of custom courses. Trained as a

U.S. Army pilot working overseas in remote areas, an avid expedition sailor, and then a NOLS instructor, Terri currently flies as an EMS/SAR pilot with Air Idaho Rescue in the northern Rockies. Her background and interest in emergency medicine result from her involvement in remote activities where preparation, self-sufficiency, and adequate long-term assessment and care skills are mandatory. Terri first earned her EMT-B certification in 1983, and her WEMT-B in 1990.

Dave Weber, WEMT

David has worked in outdoor education for seven years. Currently he is senior field staff for NOLS and Outward Bound. He has led mountaineering, climbing, and snowboarding expeditions throughout the United States. Dave has treated patients as an EMT, Urban and Wildland Firefighter, and snowboard patroller. He has a BS in biology/pre-medicine from Iona College in New York and currently calls Leadville, Colorado home. Dave has been spending ample free time as of late trying to trick trout with his lackluster fly-fishing skills.

Missy White, WFR

Missy began her outdoor career canoeing the swamps of southern LA. Tired of the hot, flat and humid lands, she headed to Wyoming in 1988 and has lived there (or stored stuff there) ever since. A NOLS instructor since 1987, and a WMI instructor since 2003, she's traveled wide and far for work and for fun. Missy has caved, climbed, hiked and mountaineered throughout the Rockies, the PNW, Patagonia, Bolivia, and Alaska. Notable career events: finishing 4.5 days late in an attempt of crossing the Campo de Heilo but still smiling; teaching WFA's surf side in Hawaii; and surviving a trip to the strip in Vegas. As of June 2007, she'll have a MA in Organizational Development from Seattle University and is starting a leadership consulting business. She's an avid knitter, skate skier, dabbles in triathlons, gardens to excess, makes fabulous preserves and throws the ball (a lot) for her crazy dachshund

Shane Williams, WEMT

A veteran of wilderness-based trips and graduate of Western Carolina University,
Shane has led a variety of water-based programs throughout the southeast and Central America. As river guide and instructor, he guided on section 4 of the Chattooga; trained new incoming river staff at all levels; and led canoeing, kayaking, and river rescue clinics at all levels. During this time he also ledmulti-day and multi-adventure boating trips on the Rio Sico of Honduras as well as multi-adventure programs in Panama.

Moving on to greener pastures, Shane has spent the last several years as the Outdoor Programs Coordinator of Western Carolina University Student Affairs Division and now has moved on to create the Dillsboro River Company. DRC is the lifelong dream of Shane and his family to own and operate a family rafting
company.

(W)EMT-B, ACA Swiftwater Rescue, Canoe, and Kayak Instructor

David Yacubian, WEMT

David has been working for WMI since 2003. He has led expeditions for NOLS and other organizations throughout the West, Alaska, New Hampshire and Mexico, and has worked in the outdoor field since 1993. When not teaching for WMI, David works as the Risk Management Director for Yosemite National Institutes based in Sausalito, California. He enjoys spending time in the backcountry, on and in the water, and occasionally discussing the many positive attributes of his native New England. David enjoys teaching for WMI because his students listen to him and believe the vast majority of what he teaches.

Marc Yeston, WEMT

Marc loves to train WMI students. He took his initial EMT course in 1981 and became a Paramedic in 1983. After working for a few years in Denver, he took his experience into rural areas as a professional ski patroller and EMS instructor in Summit County, Colorado. As a river guide, and later as a river ranger, he had many opportunities to practice wilderness medicine. For the past sixteen years, Marc has worked in a variety of busy backcountry settings as a ranger with the National Park Service. He currently serves as the Canyon District Ranger at Grand Canyon National Park. Marc has been uniformly impressed with the level of care and ability demonstrated by the WMI graduates he’s encountered during actual backcountry emergencies. His desire to instruct for WMI came from those experiences. When not instructing, Marc can be found working in the field as a rescuer. He holds a BS in natural resource management and loves seeing the grandeur of the Four Corners region, as though for the first time, through the eyes of his young daughter. “She’s learning to kayak so I’m teaching her about shoulder dislocations.” Marc says.

Lynn Zwaagstra, WEMT

Lynn is an avid boater and likes to hit the Colorado rivers each summer in both kayak and raft. Winter brings skiing with tons of Summit County powder. As Interim Director of Recreation for the Town of Breckenridge, Lynn works primarily in Recreation Administration. This puts to good use 17 years of experience in all areas of the recreation industry including outdoor recreation, fitness, wellness, aquatics, and special event planning. Lynn
has a bachelor's in psychology and a master's in recreation administration. As a NOLS river instructor course graduate, her love for the outdoors never ends. Lynn has instructed for WMI since 1999.