NWMC4 Featured Speakers
Keynote Speaker
:
Will Smith, MD Paramedic, FAEMS, FAWM
Dr. Smith practices Emergency Medicine in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and is a Clinical Assistant Professor for the University of Washington School of Medicine, as well as the Medical Director for the US National Park Service. Locally, he serves as the Co-Medical Director for Grand Teton National Park, Teton County Search & Rescue, Bridger Teton National Forest, and Jackson Hole Fire/EMS. Dr. Smith also serves as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps. COL Smith has practiced medicine around the world on 6 continents, from the 'Baghdad ER' to Easter Island. His combat experience combined with his pre-hospital EMS experience as a Paramedic, and his technical Search and Rescue skills have led to numerous speaking engagements at Wilderness and EMS conferences/seminars around the world. Dr. Smith has also been appointed to several national committees (American Heart Association), authored numerous book chapters and consensus guidelines on Wilderness and Rescue Medicine, and serves as a Subject Matter Expert for DARPA. He has founded and runs Wilderness and Emergency Medicine Consulting (WEMC), LLC.
Pearce Beissinger, MS, PA-C, DiMM, FAWM
Pearce is a California native who grew up on the East Coast. With previous experience in orthopaedics, he has spent the last decade serving as a physician assistant in cardiothoracic surgery. "Going vertical" has been a life-long pursuit for Pearce. Pearce is a Fellow in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (WMS) and an AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor (SPI). He has served on the board of directors for the Appalachian Center for Wilderness Medicine (ACWM), has dedicated many years of service to search and rescue teams, and has participated in numerous mountain rescues both on the east and west coast. He is currently the Vice-President of Portland Mountain Rescue (PMR), and in his early years served as a guide for LL Bean. Pearce is the recipient of the 2017 Warren D. Bowman Award for contributions in service to wilderness medicine and to the Wilderness Medical Society. More recently, he received the 2018 PA-Citizen of the Year Award from the Oregon Medical Association.
Bryan Feinstein, MD
Originally from upstate New York - GO ‘CUSE - Dr. Feinstein made the pilgrimage out west after finishing up his undergraduate degree. Two weeks after graduation, he almost died of HAPE trying to climb Denali and realized that he might benefit from some medical training. He ended up taking a wilderness EMT course and subsequently fell in love with medicine. He is currently a resident in emergency medicine at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ. He spent the interim working various jobs from ski lift operator to mountain bike guide to flight paramedic and living between Arizona/Utah/Wyoming. Bryan has extensive experience in search and rescue and critical care transport, has worked for the National Park Service in Grand Canyon and Denali National Parks, and continues to work as a flight paramedic for Classic Air Medical. He’s most at home sleeping outside and/or living out of his truck.
Carlton Heine, MD, PhD, FACEP, FAWM
Dr. Heine is a practicing emergency medicine physician with a long interest in wilderness medicine. He moved from Alaska to Spokane to become the Clinical Education Director for Emergency Medicine and the Foundational Sciences Education Director for Physiology at the new Elson S Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University. He has a long history with, and is currently on the board of directors of the Wilderness Medical Society. Dr. Heine is also a long-standing board member of Pacific Northwest Wilderness Medicine. He has been a member of the National Ski Patrol for over twenty years and is passionate about backcountry skiing and other outdoor activities in wild places.
Holly Ilg, BSN, CEN, CFRN
Holly started her career in EMS in 1999. After becoming a Flight Paramedic for Life Flight Network in 2009, she discovered a passion for pre-hospital critical care. In an effort to further her knowledge, she went back to college to obtain her BSN and returned to Life Flight Network as a Certified Flight Nurse in 2016. Her varied experience as a paramedic, as well as a nurse with a background in the ICU and emergency department, gives her a well-rounded perspective on prehospital medicine. She has taught countless continuing education classes and loves sharing her excitement for EMS. Holly is an avid trail runner, snowboarder, and lover of the outdoors.
Emily Johnston, MD
Dr. Johnston works as a high altitude mountain guide, whitewater guide, ski patroller and emergency medicine physician. She guides climbers on peaks around the globe, including Mt. Rainier, Denali, Mt. Vinson, and Mt. Everest. She is medical director for International Mountain Guides and Rainier Mountaineering Inc., teaches DiMM courses for the US Army, trains whitewater guides, has an AIARE level 3 avalanche certification and practices emergency medicine in Wyoming, Idaho and South Dakota. Dr. Johnston attended the University of Washington School of Medicine, and completed her training at the OHSU Emergency Medicine Residency Program in Portland, OR. She is currently based in her Astro van.
Olivia Linney, MD
Dr. Linney is OHSU’s inaugural wilderness medicine fellow! She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology from Stanford. She first came to OHSU as a medical student where she served as co-president of the wilderness medicine interest group and created OHSU’s first preclinical medical student elective. During medical school, she stung Paul Auerbach with a jellyfish while working on a research project with him about best treatments. She also worked with Grand Canyon Emergency Services. Dr. Linney completed her residency training in Emergency Medicine at Dartmouth where she worked as a flight physician with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advanced Response Team. She is thrilled to be back in the PNW for her fellowship. In her free time, Dr. Linney enjoys whitewater kayaking in temperatures down to 13°F and has paddled over 120 different rivers in 19 US states as well as internationally. When trying to stay drier, she also enjoys skiing, climbing, backpacking, and just about any activity outside.
Andy Luks, MD
Dr. Luks is a faculty member in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the University of Washington. Based largely at Harborview Medical Center, he spends most of his clinical time working on the different intensive care units in the hospital including the medical, trauma surgical and neurosciences ICUs. Outside of his clinical duties, he maintains an actively scholarly program in the area of high altitude medicine and physiology with a particular focus on travel to high altitude with underlying medical conditions, while at the same time engaging in a variety of educational endeavors in the School of Medicine including leading one of the main blocks in the first year curriculum and the wilderness medicine elective. He has spent time working at the Himalayan Rescue Association clinic in Nepal as well as the medical point person on two Denali Volunteer Ranger Patrols. Outside of work he enjoys getting to the mountains as much as possible for backcountry skiing, hiking and mountaineering and believes non-motorized transport is the way to go for all outdoor activities.
Don Slack, MD
Dr. Slack is an emergency physician in Mount Vernon, Washington. He’s been a Mountain Rescue volunteer since 1976; he is a member of both Skagit and Bellingham Mountain Rescue. He is also the medical advisor for North Cascades National Park and volunteers in the Mt Baker Ski area aid room. When not caring for patients or carrying a pack, he runs western rivers and someday hopes to run the Grand Canyon without swimming a major rapid.
Ben Stoner-Duncan, MD
Dr. Stoner-Duncan is an Emergency Physician at the University of Washington, Northwest Campus in Seattle, WA. He is a lifelong climber, paddler, hiker, skier and general lover of wilderness environs. Ben worked in field ornithology and disease ecology prior to medical school. He has since studied vampire bat-related rabies outbreaks in Amazonian Peru and the effects of climate change on the disease ecology of avian influenza in the arctic. He is an active field member of Seattle Mountain Rescue and serves on its medical committee.
Christopher Van Tilburg, MD
Dr. Van Tilburg is a wilderness, emergency and occupational medicine physician. He is staff physician at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital at Occupational and Travel Medicine, Emergency Department, and Mountain Clinic at Mount Hood Meadows Ski Resort. He serves as active member of Crag Rats Mountain Rescue, Chair of Mountain Rescue Association Medical Committee, and Hood River County Public Health Officer and Medical Examiner. Dr. van Tilburg is author of 11 books including Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature, which was shortlisted for the Banff Festival of Mountain Books and the Oregon Book Awards, and Search and Rescue Stories: A Wilderness Doctor’s Life and Death Tales of Risk and Reward. He is first author of Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines for Prevention and Management of Avalanche and Non-avalanche Snow Burial Accidents.
Ian Wedmore, MD, FAWM, DiMM
Ian Wedmore is a board-certified Emergency Physician from Tacoma WA. He completed his undergraduate BA at Skidmore College and his MD at New York Medical College. He did his residency training in Emergency Medicine at Madigan Army Medical Center. He subsequently served as an emergency Physician in the US Army for 29 years, deploying overseas on multiple occasions. Dr. Wedmore served as The US Army Surgeon Generals Emergency Medicine Consultant for 10 years, he developed and started the US Army Austere and Wilderness medicine Fellowship which he directed for 7 years. He continues as a teaching staff at Madigan Army Medical Center, teaches wilderness, dive, mountain medicine as well as prolonged field care. He also holds the International Diploma Of Mountain Medicine and the Fellowship of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine.
Bryan Wilson, MD, FAWM, DiMM
Dr. Wilson is a board-certified pediatrician and emergency physician currently finishing the last few months of a medical toxicology fellowship in Tucson, AZ. He has a special interest in snake envenomations and other natural toxins. He serves as a Flight Surgeon in the Air National Guard. He is an avid runner and loves to find any excuse to get outdoors.
Jodi Spangler, UWSOM MS2
Jodi is a third year medical student at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Jodi’s background is in international disaster response. She was a medical responder after the earthquakes in both Haiti and Nepal. She is founder of a nonprofit running mobile clinics in Cite Soleil, Haiti and runs a skydive program for patients with tough diagnoses. She’s on the leadership team for the Wilderness Medicine Interest Group at UW, was an organizer and the official photographer for the past 3 conferences, and continues to lend invaluable web and marketing support to NWMC and PNWM at large. When not in school, you can find her in her camping in her Westfalia, surfing, hiking, skydiving, or snapping a million pictures.