NWMC6 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. Locally, he is 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 founded and runs Wilderness and Emergency Medicine Consulting (WEMC), LLC. More information can be found at www.wildernessdoc.com.
Christian Dean, DO, DiMM, FAWM, MS
Dr. Christian Dean is a board certified family medicine physician specializing in sports, adventure, and expedition medicine. Multiple trips to the Andes in highschool and college propelled his love of high altitude adventures. And a college NYE Katahdin ascent misadventure had him yearning for type 2 fun. Through time in med school, and residency, he enjoyed skiing and mountaineering on several continents, including a high altitude research study on Denali and an HRV study on Everest. Some of this was interrupted by working April-June 2020 as a hospitalist in New York City. His broad experience as expedition physician including for three large Everest expeditions make him perfect to lead the medical team for expeditions and adventures of any size on any continent with any objective. He now calls the mountains surrounding Missoula basecamp and works as an adult hospitalist there and Jackson when not on the sideline, ski hill, or expedition. He has earned his DiMM in Nepal and his FAWM. He also runs a business, MyDocInTow, LLC, where he offers compassionate and comprehensive on-site or on-call medical direction and advisory as well as offering wilderness medical adventure education programs around the world.
Thomas DeLoughery, MD, MACP, FASM
Dr. DeLoughery is a native Hoosier who developed a love for the outdoors hiking in the woods and an early interest in wilderness medicine from the resulting tick bites and poison ivy. He went to Indiana State University during the Larry Bird era and got his MD from Indiana University School of Medicine. After a brief stop at the University of California Irvine, he completed his Internal Medicine Residency at OHSU where he also did his Hematology/Oncology fellowship and currently is on faculty as a Professor of Medicine. He has been active in Wilderness Medicine for years including now Chairing the Wilderness Medicine Society's Research Committee and was on the WMS Board of Directors for 6 years. His passion is wilderness medicine education and his one oddity is he has attended 43 Bob Dylan concerts.
Adam Edwards
Based in Portland, OR, Adam works as an arborist of professional kayaker. With over a decade of experience in the outdoor industry as a guide, instructor and other careers he now spends his time trying to help foster a more positive and supportive outdoor experience for people of color and other marginalized groups.
Tom Eglin, MD
Dr. Eglin finished undergraduate at Whitman College in 1978 and then attended Medical School at Emory University, graduating in 1982. He started an Internal Medicine Residency at UW Hospitals in 1982 but transferred back to Atlanta to work in the Grady ER for 3 years then attend ER residency until 1987. He then moved back to the Northwest in 1992 and worked in the ER in Yakima full time until 2022 when he increased his teaching commitments at PNWU. Upon moving back to Yakima, his interest in the forest and mountains grew and he joined the Wilderness Medical Society. He joined Central Washington Mountain Rescue and Yakima Search and Rescue and has been volunteer of the year for both organizations as well as past president for CWMR. Tom enjoys skiing, hiking, and biking as well as teaching with an emphasis on Clinical Skills and Emergency Medicine related topics. He likes to spend time in the Hwy 12 area hiking, biking, and working on local mountain bike trails during the summer and skiing with friends and family in the winter. He just joined the local ski patrol at White Pass.
Carlos Enciso Lopez, MD
Dr. Enciso Lopez is a graduate from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and a current PGY3 emergency medicine resident at the University of Michigan. He is also the Vice Chair for the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) Wilderness Medicine Committee. His passion for medicine stems from past work with farm-workers, immigrants and low-income families at the local FQHC in Wenatchee, WA where he grew up. He continued to work with rural communities in medical school as a TRUST student and as an advisory board member for the Area Health Education Center for Western WA where he aided in the development of pipeline programs to help guide rural students to a career in medicine. His interests include wilderness medicine, rural medicine and critical care. He hopes to continue training as a critical care fellow after residency with hopes of practicing in rural Washington at the end of the day. He satisfies his itch for adventure through alpine climbing, mountaineering, skiing, and paragliding. Carlos is a fan of long multi-pitch climbs, summit brews, hanging with the buds, and long days in the backcountry.”
Lindsey Fell, MD
Dr. Fell works in avalanche mitigation at Snowbird ski resort, and is a second year resident in emergency medicine at the University of Utah. She completed her undergraduate studies in German literature in Tacoma, WA. Thereafter, she made her home in the Tetons, where she grew vegetables for local farms and made heaps of sourdough bread. She worked as a field instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), and as a ski patroller in New Zealand and at Grand Targhee, the last 3 years of which she spent serving as Targhee’s Assistant Snow Safety Director. She attended medical school at OHSU. While at OHSU, she volunteered with Portland Mountain Rescue, and she wants to give a big shout-out to those folks because they are awesome. She could not be more excited to be back in her old “Hood” with all of you.
Alex Franke, MD
Alex Franke is a chief resident at the University of Utah Emergency Medicine Residency, and a graduate of the Elson S Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University. After graduating residency next summer he will be joining the faculty at UCSF Fresno, where he will be one of the assistant medical directors of the Parkmedic program. Prior to medical school he spent three seasons doing search and rescue for the National Park Service in Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks, which involved a little bit of technical rescue and a lot of carrying people down trails. When he’s not busy with residency he enjoys skiing, running, biking, skiing more, looking for new favorite trees, avoiding lightning, and eating doughnuts.
Sarah Gartner, MD
Sarah Gartner is an Emergency Medicine Physician at Harborview Medical Center and Northwest Hospital as well as the inaugural Ultrasound Fellow through the University of Washington. She completed her Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Washington where she served as chief resident and flight physician for Airlift Northwest. She continues to work with the Airlift team, teaching them to use point-of-care ultrasound during fixed-wing and rotor transport. Through her fellowship she has partnered with the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), creating an austere ultrasound education program for their rural health providers. Sarah enjoys summiting mountains on skis, running trails with her dog, and trying not to epic on whatever adventure she planned with her husband.
Justin Grisham, DO, FAWM, DiMM
Dr. Grisham is a board certified Emergency Medicine physician with a US Army Forward Resuscitative Surgical Team. His interests include austere and wilderness medicine, EMS, ultrasound, flight medicine, and military operational medicine. Following medical school at AT Still University Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, he completed his Emergency Medicine residency and Ultrasound Fellowship at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA. He has completed a Fellowship in Wilderness Medicine and the UIAA Diploma in Mountain Medicine and actively teaches both civilian and military wilderness medicine courses. Justin previously worked as a climbing ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park and served as a squad leader and chief medical officer with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Department’s Mountain Rescue Team. You can find him in Colorado working in rural emergency departments around Colorado when he's not paragliding, climbing, mountain biking, skiing, or lounging.
Carl Heine, MD, PhD, FACEP, FAWM
Dr. Heine is a practicing emergency medicine physician with a special interest in wilderness medicine. He moved from Alaska to Spokane to help start the Elson S Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University, where he is currently the Associate Dean of Clinical Education for Spokane. He founded the ACEP Section of Wilderness Medicine and has been a long time member of the Wilderness Medical Society. He has been active with the National Ski Patrol for over twenty years and is passionate about backcountry skiing and other outdoor activities in wild places.
Emily Johnston, MD, FACEP, DiMM, FAWM
Dr. Johnston works as a mountain guide, whitewater guide, ski patroller and emergency medicine physician. She guides climbers on the highest peaks around the globe. She is medical director for several guide services, teaches DiMM courses for the Army, trains whitewater guides, has a level 3 avalanche certification, writes and delivers avalanche curriculum for Cascadia Mountain Institute, and practices and teaches emergency medicine. She attended the University of Washington School of Medicine, and completed her training at the OHSU Emergency Medicine Residency Program in Portland, OR. She enjoys remote places, good IPAs and dogs (not necessarily in that order). Dr. Johnston is currently based in a little cabin in the Tetons, and her Astro van in the Cascades.
Sara Kirkpatrick, DO
Dr. Kirkpatrick is an emergency medicine resident at Oregon Health and Science University, and a candidate for the Fellowship of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. She is a former member and leader of a water-based search and rescue organization in Colorado and is column editor of the Headwaters Climate Medicine column of Wilderness Medicine Magazine. Her formative years were spent in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, helping her parents train search and rescue dogs. During college, she ran a photography business and became an Emergency Medical Technician while studying cultural anthropology at Colorado State University. She studied abroad in Russia and Kenya during college and now volunteers time allocating scholarships for study abroad programs. As an avid scuba diver, she found joy working as a search and rescue diver and water rescue technician in Boulder County for five years before starting medical school. She attended ATSU School of Osteopathic Medicine where she studied in Phoenix and Seattle. She now lives in Oregon where she is specializing in emergency medicine and continues to spend as much time exploring outdoors as she can. This winter she has been building her freediving skills in the balmy waters of the Puget Sound.
Ryan LeBuhn, MD
Ryan LeBuhn is a fourth-year Emergency Medicine resident at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He attended the first Northwest Wilderness Medicine Conference as a medical student at Oregon Health & Science University, was totally overwhelmed by simulating the tasks of a rescuer in the conference's mass casualty simulation, and has since dedicated himself to learning and teaching resuscitation systems and team dynamics tools. In New York, he currently splits time between The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, teaches the Wilderness Medicine elective at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and provides medical advisory for New Jersey Search and Rescue. "Wherever I May Roam, 5.9" is still his favorite climbing route.
Olivia Linney, MD, DiMM
Dr. Linney is an emergency medicine physician who practices in Portland. She first came to OHSU as a medical student where she served as co-president of the wilderness medicine interest group. She completed her residency at Dartmouth, then returned to OHSU for her wilderness medicine fellowship. In the past, she has collaborated with Grand Canyon Emergency Services and served as a flight physician while at Dartmouth. Currently, she is on the medical committee for Portland Mountain Rescue and works at the Mt. Hood Meadows Mountain clinic. In her free time, Dr. Linney enjoys whitewater kayaking and has paddled over 150 different rivers in 6 countries, competed internationally, and completed a probable first descent in 2021. When trying to stay drier, she also enjoys skiing, climbing, backpacking, and just about any activity outside.
Miles McDonough, MD
Miles McDonough MD is a PGY4 EM resident at UCSF Fresno, completing medical school at UWSOM in Seattle. For 10 years prior to residency he worked in mountain rescue as an operations team leader with both Seattle Mountain Rescue and Everett Mountain Rescue Units. He was a rescue technician with Snohomish County Helicopter Rescue Team, participating in rescues that ultimately received the Airbus Helicopters Golden Hour Award in 2015. He completed his DiMM with the Canadian Society of Mountain Medicine and now helps instruct with both the Canadian and Nepalese DiMM programs. As a resident physician he works with the NPS ParkMedic program, providing medical direction, education, quality improvement and protocol development for Yosemite and Sequoia Kings Canyon National Parks. When not at work, he enjoys ski mountaineering in the Sierras.
Derrick Sorweide, DO
Dr. Sorweide is a graduate of Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, and did a family medicine residency at the University of North Texas. He opened his practice in Grants Pass Oregon in 1999, and was a founding partner in the Grants Pass Medical Center, Grants Pass Medical Imaging, Mid-Rogue IPA, and Grants Pass Surgery Center. In 2011 he helped found the Oregon Campus of Western University of Health Sciences and moved to Lebanon, OR to teach full time. He has had many roles at the school, and is currently the Medical Director for Simulation Learning. Dr. Sorweide has an extensive history of service on the state, federal, and international levels. Amongst these: He sat on the Board of the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of Oregon for 12 years, eventually serving 2 years as President. He was Oregon DO of the Year in 2017. He served for 4 years on the Governor appointed committee to oversee coverage for the Oregon Health Plan. He currently serves with the United States Army Reserve’s Medical Readiness and Training Command. This command oversees all medical trainings for soldiers and units under the Army Reserve force. He has several combat and anti-narcotic/ anti-human trafficking deployments, as an Emergency Medicine Physician. He is the medical director for the Army’s TeamSTEPPS training program at the Mayo Clinics in Minnesota and Florida. He is a Governor of the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians. He also works with such groups as local fire departments, the State of Oregon, the State of Idaho, Strategic Operations, the British Army, and Special Operations Medical Association to provide trainings in Tactical Combat Casualty Care, TeamSTEPPS communication, military hospital operations, wilderness medicine, and leadership.
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.
Rachel Wilks, DO
Rachel Wilks is a current OSU Pediatric resident. She received her Doctor of Osteopathy degree at Pacific Northwest University of College of Health sciences. She has her Bachelor of Science degree in BioHealth Sciences along with a Minor in Public Health from Oregon State University. She was born and raised in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and lived in Washington State during her medical education. She finds all aspects of pediatrics interesting but has a special place in her heart for osteopathic manipulation therapy (OMT), sports/wilderness medicine and adolescent women’s health. When she is not working, she finds herself outdoors continually trying to find the next best outdoor adventure. Once the mud has been kicked from her hiking shoes, she dons an apron and gets flour deep in baking anything from pastries to cookies to cakes. Her favorite thing to do is decorate cakes for all occasions and host her friends and family for any occasion/holiday.