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 Deb Ajango has taught wilderness medicine for Wilderness Medical Associates for 15 years. Ms. Ajango has an extensive background working as a practitioner and administrator in the profession, and has logged more than 2000 field days of experience. |
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 Aram Attarian, Ph.D. has been working in the adventure industry for over 30 years. He is currently Associate Professor at North Carolina State University, specializing in Adventure Recreation, Outdoor Leadership, and park and protected area management. He has over 20 seasons as a Course Director and Instructor at the North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS). He is a member of the NCOBS BOD where he chairs the safety committee and participates in safety and program reviews for various organizations and the Association for Experiential Education. |
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 Christopher Barnes is the co-founder and Executive Director of the High Mountain Institute in Leadville, Colorado. HMI's defining program is the Rocky Mountain Semester, a semester-long academic and wilderness program for high school juniors. HMI also offers leadership development, wilderness medicine, avalanche, and other custom courses. |
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Jill Baum has worked full time with SCA corps programming for over 8 years, including living onsite at multiple northeast residential AmeriCorps programs, leading the Mount Rainier Recovery Corps and serving in her current capacity as Assistant National Director overseeing western corps operations. She additionally worked seasonally for 7 summers as an SCA high school crew leader. |
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Rebecca Bear currently manages the REI Outdoor School which serves over 11,000 people annually in 12 major metropolitan areas. The programs are urban one-day courses that focus on beginner level skills. She supports REI’s Risk Management Committee and has developed a site management training program for the 150+ instructors at REI. Prior to working at REI, Rebecca served as the chair of risk management committee for Passages Northwest and worked with Outward Bound International in establishing international safety standards. |
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 Rick Braschler is the Director of Risk Management for Kanakuk Kamps, one of the nation's largest youth camping organizations. Rick is also the Senior Risk Consultant for CircuiTree Solutions, providing risk consulting services for camp and outdoor organizations throughout the world. Rick has 18 years experience in the insurance and risk management industry specializing in camping and outdoor recreation. Rick is an avid outdoorsman, speaker and author, and father of four. |
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Hannah Burgard coordinates technology use by our western Corps programs, including use of satellite phones, SPOT messengers, GIS acquisition devices and other field technology. |
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Brendan Carroll graduated from Kalamazoo College, and is interested in non-traditional education and academics. He also spends his time rock climbing and riding his motorcycle around Southeast Asia. |
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Alex Chu is the Associate Program Director for Thompson Island Outward Bound. With 10 years of outdoor experience ranging from urban summer camps to wilderness expeditions, his passion has consistently lead to exposing underserved populations to experience the power of programs in the natural environment. While responsible for the management and delivery of environmental education and wilderness expeditions, he is concurrently working on a masters degree at Harvard University concentrating on Clinical Psychology. |
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Tony Clapp is a partner in the law firm of Harris, Karstaedt, Jamison & Powers, P.C. in Colorado. As a trial lawyer, Tony specializes in defending civil claims, including those claims brought against outdoor recreation programmers and providers. Tony is a former fly-fishing and whitewater rafting guide. He also is a volunteer ski instructor at the National Sports Center for the Disabled in Winter Park, Colorado. He is a PSIA certified ski instructor. |
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Ross Cloutier is an Assistant Professor at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada. He is a well known expert in the area of adventure and outdoor education insurance, risk management, and litigation defence. He has conducted numerous accident investigations, written outdoor education policy and procedures for over 800 schools, and sits on Coroner death review panels. He was the climbing leader for the Everest Canada 1991 expedition. |
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Joshua Cole is Program Director for Outward Bound in Washington. The Washington Program operates in some of the most technical terrain in the US, and runs sea kayaking, mountaineering, backpacking and canoeing courses in the San Juan Islands and North Cascades. Josh has been a field instructor, course director and trainer for Outward Bound. In addition, Josh has an MSc in geological sciences, with several publications and presentations at national conferences |
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David Critton is Vice President for Site Leadership for the Southwest Conservation Corps. In this position he provides support and oversight to each of SCC’s regional operations across the southwest. Previously he spent more than a dozen years with the Student Conservation Association (SCA) where he held many positions from Crew Leader to National Director of the Conservation Corps Program. During this time David helped develop and manage several corps programs based on various models with different emphases. At various times he has also spent extended periods overseas, living for several years in both Africa and the South Pacific. Although his first degree was in engineering, he later received graduate degrees in both education and forestry. |
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Ed Crothers has been a professional mountain guide, climbing instructor and wilderness based experiential educator for 22+ years. He worked for the Colorado Outward Bound School from 1989 to 1998, including a stint as field staff representative to the COBS Risk Management Committee. In 1998, he worked for a season at the American Alpine Institute in Bellingham, Washington before becoming a co-owner of the Colorado Mountain School in Estes Park, Colorado from 1999 to 2004. From 2004 to 2009 he continued on at CMS as a guide and served as the Avalanche Education Director for two years. He is currently employed by the American Mountain Guides Association as the Accreditation Director and Climbing Instructor Program Director. He is an AMGA Certified Rock Instructor and AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Provider. |
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Peter DeRego is the Assistant Director of Risk Management for the Student Conservation Association. He is responsible for managing the risk management systems and processes associated with fielding nearly 4500 conservation volunteers nationwide each year. Peter is also an attorney in the State of Vermont where he served as a general practitioner prior to working with the Student Conservation Association. |
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Dr. Alan Ewert’s development and active involvement in outdoor leadership training is of invaluable worth to his students at Outward Bound, the National Outdoor Leadership School, Wilderness Inquiry, and many other outdoor education, adventure education and outdoor therapeutic education programs. The Conservation, Outdoor Recreation and Education (CORE) program at Indiana University remains a highly sought-after semester-long program for undergraduates, as well as for students pursuing Master’s and Doctoral degrees in a range of disciplines. |
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 Bill Fredrick has been the Director of Safety at The School for Field Studies (SFS) since 2002 and instituted SFS Risk Management Education in 2006. He has served as project leader for the Forum on Education Abroad’s pilot incident database and co chair of the inaugural Standards Institute. He has led numerous international safety reviews and served for 16 years with Outward Bound. As a senior instructor and faculty committee member for Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA), he has taught emergency medicine to educators, rescue teams and international service organizations in over a dozen countries and designed WMA’s Travel Medicine First Aid course. He holds a B.A in Psychology from the University of Colorado and an M.Ed from Harvard University. |
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Lee Gault has been with the MCC since 1995, the last 12 as Program Director. Prior to joining the MCC, Lee spent 10 years with the Colorado and North Carolina Outward Bound Schools as in instructor, course director and Director of Health Services Programs. He has also been a wilderness therapist working with various populations, classroom teacher and counselor. He holds Masters Degrees in Experiential Education and Counseling. |
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Clark Glenn is President of the Board of Directors for the Independent Schools Experiential Education Network (ISEEN) and was one of the organizations cofounders. He has worked in the field of outdoor education for ten years and was most recently the Director of Outdoor Programs for The Lawrenceville School. Clark has led wilderness leadership trips on five continents. He now consults in the fields of wilderness risk management, leadership development, and international programming. |
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Lewis Glenn |
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John Gookin has been a NOLS instructor and/or manager since 1981. Prior to that he taught high school sciences. He is author/editor of the NOLS Instructor Notebook series and is working towards a PhD in Education. John became interested in backcountry lightning safety when he was the 1999 WRMC conference organizer and the prevailing lightning scientists said that there was no body of information available on this topic. |
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Sky Gray, M.S, has 25 years of experience in the field, was the former Director of AEE Accreditation, is a consultant with Roberts, Gray and Associates and has served as Executive Director at a culturally diverse adventure based organization, the Santa Fe Mountain Center for the last 11 years. She has been an active member of AEE since the mid 80’s. She served on the Wilderness Rick Management committee for 8 years and served as AEE Accreditation Council Chair for 6 years. The Santa Fe Mountain Center received the AEE organization of the Year award in 2008. |
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Wilma J. Gray is a civil trial attorney in California, specializing in recreation law. She is a partner in a mid-size defense law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. After receiving a B.A. from Queen’s University, she worked for the Canadian government in Ottawa, before moving to California. When not in trial or deposition, Wilma loves to get outdoors. Born in rural Ontario, Canada, much of her youth was spent canoeing, hiking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and as a counselor for outdoor youth programs. |
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 Charles (Reb) Gregg is a practicing attorney in Houston, Texas specializing in outdoor adventure and education law. He serves on the board of Directors of The Student Conservation Association (SCA) and The Friends of Big Bend National Park, and on the Wilderness Risk Managers Conference Steering Committee and the Accreditation Council of the Association for Experiential Education. Reb is legal counsel to a number of organizations, including summer camps, secondary and college outdoor programs, challenge courses and outfitters. |
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 Catherine Hansen-Stamp is an attorney in Golden, Colorado. She advises recreation and adventure providers on law, liability and risk management issues. She speaks and writes on these issues both regionally and nationally, and has presented at the WRMC since its inception in 1994. Cathy provides legal counsel to a variety of organizations, including recreation, adventure and sport program providers, camps, schools, outfitters and guides. She is a member of the Wyoming and Colorado Bar Associations, and co-authors the Outdoor Ed Adventure and Recreation Law Center with Reb Gregg. |
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Cody Harris began kayaking at the age of 11. He is a past member of the U.S. Kayak Olympic Development Team, and has spent the past two decades working and playing on as many rivers as possible. As Director of the Whitewater Rescue Institute, Cody is responsible for program and curriculum development, and still gets out in the water as an instructor. In the off-season, Cody works as an EMT, a ski-patroller, and teaches wilderness medicine. |
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Mitsu Iwasaki joined BCM with 15 years of experience in the Outdoor Programming industry in multiple capacities as an an instructor and program manger. Having earned degrees in Environmental Engineering and in Non-Profit Management he feels he has been exceptionally fortunate to have had opportunities to combine his studies, passions, and values and beliefs into roles that he sees as doing “good” and affecting real and useful change. |
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 Jeff Jackson is an award winning educator who brings a business management perspective that spans adventure tourism, economic development, health care and education. Jeff is a professor and coordinator of Algonquin College's Outdoor Adventure professional guide training diploma, where he oversees 18,000 student field days per year and teaches courses in Leadership, Ethics, Marketing, Risk Management and Business Planning. He has worked as a guide, educator and project manager since 1988. |
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David Johnson is uniquely qualified to discuss a wide range of topics. He bring years of experience as a backcountry traveler and patient caregiver. To make the session as valuable for each one of you as possible, please come prepared to challenge him with the questions whose answers have eluded you for years. |
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Tracey L. Knutson is a licensed attorney in Anchorage, Alaska whose primary practice involves working with recreation and adventure sports commercial operators, public land administrators and recreation oriented educational groups. An experienced trial lawyer, Tracey defends recreation companies and sports groups from liability claims, often negotiating pretrial conclusions that minimize time and expense. In addition, she provides risk management and training services. |
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Rob Koning is the Wilderness Department Manager for the Catherine Freer
Wilderness Therapy Program in Albany, OR. With 9 years in therapeutic
wilderness expeditionary pursuits, Rob's current focus is in staff
development and risk management. |
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 Alex Kosseff is the Director of the Outdoor Safety Institute and author of the AMC Guide to Outdoor Leadership. As the former Leadership and Volunteer Relations Director for the Appalachian Mountain Club, Alex developed risk management systems for nine thousand annual professionally and volunteer led outdoor programs. When not focused on risk management consulting, Alex climbs, skis, and instructs outdoor programs in Montana. |
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 Drew Leemon, NOLS Director of Risk Management, began his career in outdoor education in 1979 and has held his current position since 1996. He is a past chairman of the Wilderness Risk Managers Committee and is on the steering committee for the Wilderness Risk Management Conference. He has published papers on wilderness injury and incident data and is co-editor of the Manual of Accreditation Standards for Adventure Programming and co-authored Risk Management for Outdoor Leaders. |
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Michael Lindsey is vice president safety at Outward Bound Inc. He began his career in outdoor education in 1979, as an Outward Bound instructor. He worked as an instructor in the United States and abroad before becoming program director for Colorado Outward Bound School in 1984. He was the Rocky Mountain branch director at the National Outdoor Leadership School in the early 1990s and served as operations director for six years until leaving in 2002. |
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Brendan Madden is the Director of Hulbert Outdoor Center in Vermont, overseeing both residential and expedition-based outdoor ed programs. He spent 11 years at the National Outdoor Leadership School, as senior instructor, Rocky Mountain Program Director, Yukon Program Supervisor, and Assistant Director of Professional Training. Prior to NOLS he was a senior instructor at Outward Bound Canada. Brendan occasionally works as a risk management trainer and presenter for NOLS. |
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 Doug Mahon has been working in the experiential, wilderness and character education field for thirty years. With Rob Chatfield, Doug was a co-Presenter at WRMC Emergency Action Response Workshop in 2004 & 2005. Additionally Doug has delivered trainings to for-profit and not-for-profit organizations on topics such as Leading Change and Transition, Effectively Managing the Conflict of Change, The Heroic Journey, Effective Communication, The Wonder of Adolescents, Servant Leadership, and Site Management. |
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 Will Marling has earned undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate degrees in a variety of disciplines. In 2000 he was trained by the National Organization for Victim Assistance® (NOVA) and added to his skill set for responding people in crisis. His praxis has been informed as a responder to national and international events from violent crimes to natural disasters. |
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David McEvoy is the co-founder of Aerie. David has 20 years professional experience as a paramedic and has lead backcountry conservation corps crews for SCA, the Green Mountain Club and the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps since 1989. Yet to be mauled by anything other than a hungry chicken, David spends as much time as possible with his family in Montana's backcountry. |
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Rhonda Mickelson has worked in the camping profession for over 30 years starting as a summer camp counselor, moving into the role of Program Director for a large private camp and onto being a Camp Director. After having been a long time volunteer with the American Camp Association, Rhonda has served as the Director of Standards for over three years. She has served as a member of the ACA Hotline Team during this time as well. |
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Frances Mock is an attorney specializing in advising wilderness and experiential education programs. She is counsel to Outward Bound, NOLS, and other clients and advises on responding to serious incidents, claims, and lawsuits, as well as other matters such as ADA compliance, liability release forms, contracts, and general risk management. Frances worked as a Class V whitewater rafting guide, cross country skiing instructor for special needs populations, and in other adventure-based industries for ten years before becoming an attorney. |
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Kevin Moeller is the Wilderness Program Manager at the Santa Fe Mountain Center, where he develops programs for adjudicated & referred youth that involve extended wilderness contact. These programs include rock climbing, rappelling and hiking components. He has been at the Mountain Center since 1999. In addition to working with youth he is the Mountain Center’s Risk Manager and Technical trainer, and is currently at work helping to re-define many of the Mountain Center’s program curriculums. |
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 Paul Nicolazzo has worked in the outdoor industry since 1978 as a professional outdoor guide, field instructor, staff trainer, program manager, outdoor program designer and consultant (including 22 years with Outward Bound). He is the Director of the Wilderness Medicine Training Center, a leader in innovative and practical instruction in wilderness medicine outdoor program risk management. His risk management models (Site Management, Outcome Model, etc.) are used effectively by colleges, universities, camps, and outfitters nationwide. |
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Nancy Oswald is the Assistant Director of Field Operations for SCA's Community Programs. SCA engages over 2,000 youth annually in year-round programming in 20 metropolitan areas throughout the country. The program provides one day, ongoing and progressive opportunities for youth to develop conservation and outdoor leadership skills while building an ethic of community and environmental stewardship. |
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Brenda Porter is the Education Director for the Colorado Mountain Club, a volunteer-based outdoor organization with more than 900 volunteer trip leaders. She is currently revamping their volunteer leadership and risk management training program, including design of supplementary web-based training materials. |
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Gates Richards is a senior instructor for the Wilderness Medicine Institute of NOLS. Gates 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. He oversees WMI's WEMT and Instructor Training programs and is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. |
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Mark Ritchie has lived most of the last 20+ years in Thailand, as a researcher, consultant, trainer, project evaluator, and teacher. He founded the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute, a recognized leader in experiential education and international risk management. When not on an expedition or dealing with a crisis, he plays Irish music in a band in Chiang Mai, Thailand. |
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Billy Roos has been actively involved in outdoor education since 1973 as an Instructor, Course Director, Medical Screener, and Facilities Manager. He has worked in the Outward Bound Safety Department since 2004, and is presently the Director of Safety, based in Golden, CO. |
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 Jay A. Satz is Vice President for Western Initiatives for SCA, located in Seattle. He has served on the Wilderness Risk Managers Committee since 1995 and regularly writes and presents on risk management issues, as well as performing safety audits and incident reviews within the industry. Jay also serves as a risk management instructor and Board member of Aerie Backcountry Medicine and works collaboratively at the most senior levels of the National Park Service on safey and risk management issues. |
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 After working as a Wilderness Guide, Kirk Shimeall was demoted to management at Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy Programs twelve years ago, and works as the Wilderness Program Manager. He enjoys many outdoor activities with his wife and two young sons, surfing, dark chocolate, playing Ultimate, natural building with cob and straw bale, and reading irreverent satire such as "The Onion". He is currently pursuing an MBA with an emphasis on Sustainability from one of the nation’s leading “green” business schools, Bainbridge Graduate Institute. |
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Steve Smith has over fifteen years of experience working as an educator, both outdoors and in university settings. He has hired and trained hundreds of outdoor instructors while serving as Staffing Manager for Outward Bound, and wrote sections of Outward Bound's Trainer's Manual. He now owns and runs Experiential Consulting, a Seattle-based company which serves the outdoor education industry in the (inter-related) areas of risk management, staff training, and human resources. He has learned that the best adventures involve strong coffee, great food, and tenacious people. |
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Justin Talbot is the Wilderness Programs Manger for the High Mountain Institute in Leadville, Colorado. HMI's defining program is the Rocky Mountain Semester, a semester-long academic and wilderness program for high school juniors. HMI also offers leadership development, wilderness medicine, avalanche, and other custom courses. |
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 Liz Tuohy was the program director for NOLS Rocky Mountain for 5 years, where she oversaw (directly and indirectly) 250 field staff/year and up to 45,000 student days annually. She was responsible for supervising instructors in risk management, student outcomes, and curriculum. She got a lot of practice in things like instilling new curriculum on courses, addressing performance issues in staff, coaching staff to address student performance concerns, managing evacuations and developing staff qualifications. |
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 Mark Vermeal is National Director of Risk Management and Safety for the Student Conservation Association. He is responsible for developing and implementing risk management strategies for nearly 4200 staff and volunteers nationwide. Mark has over 15 years of director level outdoor programs experience. An EMT, he has been a wilderness medicine instructor, an AMGA certified Rock Instructor, has been certified by the ACA as a white water open canoe instructor and serves on the BOD for the Pemi Valley SAR Team. |
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Edwin Weih P.A. is a Physician Associate, and graduated from Emory University School of Medicine. He has been a professional raft guide in the southeast, and has also taught climbing programs. He helped establish and develop comprehensive wilderness medical programs and kits for Georgia Tech’s Outdoor Rec Program. He is currently the Medical Director for Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy Programs. He has a strong interest in preprogram medical evaluation of clients and management of medical emergencies in the field. |
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Jed Williamson, M.Ed. is the Immediate Past President of Sterling College in VT. He is co-author of the AEE Accreditation Standards for Adventure Programs, editor of "Accidents in North American Mountaineering, and co-designer of the "Live, Learn, and Teach" graduate program in experiential education at UNH. He has conducted many risk management reviews and accident investigations for adventure programs. |
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Janet Zeller is the National Accessibility Program Manager for the U.S. Forest Service in the agency’s Washington, DC headquarters. She has been involved in the development and implementation of the Forest Service accessibility programs and policies, since joining the agency in 1991. Janet also works with other Federal agencies and organizations on a full range of recreation and accessibility issues. Janet, a lifelong recreationist herself, also instructs accessibility and universal design of programs and facilities at training sessions nationally. |
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 Lester R. Zook is the director of the Outdoor Ministry and Adventure Leadership program at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. His doctorate is from the University of Virginia (1995). In 2004, he started WILD GUYde Adventures, providing adventure guiding and staff training for summer camps, groups, and families in the various back-country areas of Virginia and West Virginia. |
