Nadia Kimmel -- Founder of Desert Mountain Medicine, Outdoor Educator and Wilderness Medicine Instructor

EDDY OUT

In this episode we talk about:

• Nadia's Mentor Paul Petzoldt (one of the founders of NOLS in 1964)
• Wilderness Education Association supported Nadia throughout her career
• DMM's Psychological First Aid Presentation
• DMM now offers Women’s Wild Med Program (WWMP)-WWMP offers wilderness medicine courses of all levels for women, taught by women. We welcome all women and girls (transgender and cisgender) as well as non- binary people who identify with the women’s community.
• High School WildMed Initiative- Nadia's goal to get Wilderness First Aid into our school systems

Nadia's Tips for Females that want to Rise up

1. Have a passion that is infectious! "People will pay for Passion"
2. Be a critical thinker
3. Be Genuinely YOU!

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Want to become a Wilderness First Responder Instructor? Click here for more info

Reach out to Nadia directly- [e-mail]

Shoutout to MORGAN, one of Nadia's lead Instructors at DMM

Subscribe to the Sharp End Podcast

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More about DMM:

Desert Mountain Medicine Website

Follow Desert Mountain Medicine on Facebook and Instagram

Nadia sits at the roundtable helping push Wilderness Medicine Forward with the Wilderness Medicine Education Collaborative

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About Nadia:

Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Nadia was drawn to the Rockies of Colorado as a young adult. She began leading students on month long backpacking trips around the West for various outdoor education companies. Much to her surprise the only medical training that was required of her was basic first aid and CPR certifications.

After completing her first Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course in 1992 she recognized the broader need for a more robust, field-based, wilderness medicine curricula designed specifically for outdoor professionals. Nadia pursued this newfound passion with her usual infectious intensity, and began teaching WFR courses soon thereafter. Her fascination with medicine lead to her receiving an EMT certification in 1994 and subsequently volunteering on SAR and working in various emergency departments around Colorado.

Before founding Desert Mountain Medicine (DMM), Nadia worked for the Wilderness Education Association as an outdoor educator. She also attended Colorado State University and earned a B.S. in Natural Resource Management. Later she was asked to join Colorado Mountain College to help jump start their Outdoor Recreation Leadership program (ORL) in Leadville, CO after which she earned an M.S. in Forestry with an emphasis in Outdoor Recreation from Northern Arizona University. Her combined education and experience as a guide, outdoor educator, medical professional, and wilderness medicine instructor provided her with a solid foundation of knowledge, skills, and perspective to develop and run DMM under her own unique vision in 1998.

After founding DMM Nadia became the EMS coordinator and EMT instructor for Colorado Mountain College, which inspired her to pursue a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) from Regis University. Nadia continued to work as an ER nurse while cultivating DMM and its community from a fledgling, one-woman operation to the expanding business that it is today.

Over two decade later, Nadia continues to contribute to the field of wilderness medicine as part of the Wilderness Medicine Education Collaborative (WEMC) and as DMM’s Executive Director, focusing on curriculum development.

Nadia in the media:

1. The ABCs of SOS on Outside Online
2. Local Outdoor Instructor gets National Spotlight