Trang Vo, OMS4

President

Trang is a 4th year medical student at PNWU. She grew up in Tacoma, Washington and attended Western Washington University to acquire an undergraduate degree in general biology. She was a ER scribe and later spent time as a rural medical intern in Bocas del Toro, Panama. She hopes to learn from others and gain experience in wilderness medicine to support her passion for educating and increasing access to healthcare globally. She has a strong interest in pursuing a residency in emergency medicine. In her free time, you can find her stopping every few minutes to identify insects and plants on hikes, throwing clay, and trying restaurants in every place she travels.

Favorite trail snack: Salami

Cory Thompson, OMS4

Vice President

Cory is a fourth-year osteopathic medical student at Western University of Health Sciences in Lebanon, Oregon who hopes to pursue internal medicine. Prior to medical school he attended the University of Oregon. When not actively studying, he is typically exploring Oregon's beautiful peaks, working on home improvement projects, or working on his truck. As a seventh generation Oregonian, he grew up exploring a lot of the greater Oregon forests and wildernesses, which inspired his passion for the outdoors. In the wilderness, Cory is passionate about exploring various peaks around the PNW that have historic fire lookouts, fishing, snowshoeing, and camping with his wife and two dogs.

Favorite trail snack: Jerky (also sour patch kids, long story)

jessica lai, OMS3, Ms

Secretary

Jessica is a third-year medical student at Western University of Health Sciences. Her interest in wilderness medicine began after helping a friend manage an injury sustained during a climbing trip and was further cultivated through her involvement with the Northwest Wilderness Medicine Conference. Before medical school, she conducted neuroscience research and worked in biotech research and development, where she developed a passion for translating scientific discoveries into clinical applications. Outside of medicine, Jessica enjoys yoga, rock climbing, hiking, and contemporary dance. She also loves designing yoga flows for practitioners of all experience levels and spending time outdoors with friends.

Favorite trail snack: Trail mix, drinkable jelly

Brandon Reid, MS2, RN, WEMT

Treasurer

Brandon is a second year medical student at PNWU. He grew up in Salmon Idaho, a small mountain town surrounded by wilderness and wildlife. Before deciding to go to medical school, Brandon was a wilderness EMT for a local search and rescue unit and worked in both the ICU and Emergency Departments as a RN. His interest in wilderness medicine began by combining his passions of emergency medicine and being in the back country. Brandon is planning to pursue a residency in emergency medicine and completing a fellowship in wilderness medicine. In his free time, you can find him mountain biking, taking the scenic motorcycle ride, hiding in the mountains, and hiking with his pup Shasta.

Favorite trail snack: Chocolate chip cookie dough pop-tarts

Jenika Staben, MS3

Communications Officer

Jenika is a third year medical student at the University of Washington. Originally from Spokane, she grew up hiking and camping in the Selkirk mountains with her family where she fell in love with the outdoors. She attended Western Washington University for undergrad where she spent her free-time adventuring on bike and exploring Mt. Baker. She is excited to incorporate wilderness medicine into her future career (specialty pending). Her favorite place to be is on the mat practicing yoga or frolicking in the mountains.

Favorite trail snack: Huckleberries

Katherine Pelz, ms3

Board Member

Katherine is an MD/PhD student at Oregon Health and Science University, and is defending her PhD dissertation in August 2026, then will return as a MS3. She grew up in Portland OR, where her love for the outdoors began as her parents would take her backpacking, white water, backcountry skiing, and more. She has used her PhD to travel and has hiked the Speyside way in Scotland, biked through southern Portugal and Germany/Austria, and rode horses through Spain. All her outdoor adventures and desire to spread wilderness knowledge has solidified her interest in wilderness medicine. For a clinical specialty, she plans to pursue ophthalmology, specifically ocular oncology! In her free time, you can likely find her up on Mt. Hood.

Favorite trail snack: Homemade GORP (lots of chocolate in it)

Gergana "Ana" Alteva, MS3

Board Member

Gergana is a third year medical student at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, OR. She grew up in the rural New Hampshire and went to undergrad in NYC. Prior to medical school, she worked as a med-tech programmer, and then served Active Duty Army for 5 years as a comms officer. Her work as an Advanced-EMT in rural New England sparked her interest in wilderness medicine. Her hobbies include blacksmithing, climbing, and obsessing over her husky, Thor.

Favorite trail snack: Cheese sticks

Nathaniel Garry, MS2/G2

Board Member

Nathaniel is an MD-PhD student at the University of Washington, currently toiling away in the lab for the PhD portion of his training. He grew up in Upstate New York, where his love for the outdoors began as his parents would often take him canoe-camping in the Adirondacks. He loves participating in various endurance sports that get him out in the wilderness by human-powered locomotion. His recent obsession is bikepacking.

Favorite trail snack: Good old raisins and peanuts (GORP)

Patrick Hamann, MS4

Board Member

Patrick's passion for the outdoors began in childhood, hiking and camping in the mountains of central Oregon. That early love of the backcountry led him to become a Wilderness EMT and Wilderness First Responder instructor, and later to a lifelong passion for rock climbing. Now a fourth-year medical student at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, OR, Patrick is pursuing a career in Family Medicine.

Favorite trail snack: Peanut butter pretzels

Charlotte McKenzie, MS3, FF/AEMT

Board Member

Charlotte fell in love with the PNW as a kid, and was stoked to be stationed here with the Air Force! After that, she took a mountaineering class and a W-EMT class that both changed her life in the best way. While figuring out her life, she worked as a wildland FF, structural FF, aircraft mechanic, and ski patroller. She still serves in the Air National Guard while completing her schooling. Charlotte aspires to one day have more time to go adventuring - or better yet - combine adventuring with work!

Favorite trail snack: Payday

RANDI PERRY, MS4

Board Member

Randi is a fourth year medical student at University of Washington School of Medicine. Prior to medical school, they solo traveled 2 continents and 7 countries exploring ancient temples in Cambodia, looming churches in Spain, and meeting a manta ray face-to-face off the coast of Indonesia. Their interest in wilderness medicine started with their training to become an EMT, where they learned the role healthcare providers can play in keeping people safe in the wilderness. They are interested in Emergency Medicine, especially natural disaster response and water born disease prevention. In their free time, you can find them hiking, running, diving, reading, and day dreaming.

Favorite trail snack: Sour Swedish swimmers (not the orange ones)

Dr. CARL HEINE, MD, PhD, FACEP, FAWM

Board Member

Dr. Heine is an emergency medicine physician and the Associate Dean for Clinical Education Spokane for the Elson S Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University. He has a long standing interest in wilderness medicine that started with a wilderness EMT course in North Conway NH in 1980. He founded the ACEP section in wilderness medicine and is a long time member and leader within the Wilderness Medical Society. Additionally he has been a member of the National Ski Patrol for more than 25 years and is a senior alpine and senior nordic patroller. He also serves as the medical director for the Pacific Northwest Division of the NSP and on the national medical committee of the NSP.

Dr. TOM EGLIN, MD, FACEP

Board Member

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.

Dr. TOM DeLOUGHERY, MD, MACP, FAWM

Board Member

Tom 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. He has been active in Wilderness Medicine being a member of the Wilderness Medicine Society’s Research Committee for years (he is now Chair for the second time) 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 45 Bob Dylan concerts.

Dr. CASSIE LOWRY, DO, FAWM

Board Advisor, PNWM, NWMC, and NW MedWAR Co-Founder

Dr. Lowry, current Chair of the Wilderness Medical Society Search & Rescue Committee, is a practicing Urgent Care provider in San Diego, CA with a background in wilderness medicine that has preceded her medical career. Tracking back to Washington State as a Wilderness EMT, she started with Search & Rescue and Ski Patrol both of which she continued through medical school and into residency. She is a co-founder of the Northwest Wilderness Medicine Conference, Pacific Northwest Wilderness Medicine, and the Northwest MedWAR. She remained VP of PNWM throughout residency and now remains on as a board advisor.

Dr. Lowry is a graduate from Pacific Northwest University in Washington and Montana Family Medicine Residency in Billings, MT. She continues to support the SAR community and medical education through education and support in risk evaluation, hypothermia, altitude medicine, and climbing injuries. She spends much of her spare time with friends climbing, traveling, and skiing.

Dr. MILES MCDONOUGH, MD, DiMM

Board Advisor, NWMC & PNWM Co-founder

Dr. McDonough is a PGY4 with the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCSF Fresno. He is involved with their WM elective, High Sierra conference, WM resident FAWM track as well as their National Park Service ParkMedic program. For the latter he is involved with ranger education in SEKI and YOSE as well as the ParkMedic certification course, EMT refresher, TacMed course and MCI drill. He also helps run the Palisades Tahoe ALS pro-patrol didactic program. He is working on starting a DiMM program at UCSF Fresno.

Dr. CARLOS ENCISO LOPEZ, MD

Board Advisor, former PNWM President 2020-2022

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. He continues to seek out rural care opportunities and hopes to practice in rural Washington serving small and underserved communities as an attending. He satisfies his itch for adventure through rock climbing, mountaineering, and skiing. Carlos is a fan of long multi-pitch alpine climbs, enjoying a cold summit brew, and laughin’ with his buds.

Dr. ALEXANDER FRANKE, MD

Board Advisor

Alex Franke is a chief emergency medicine resident at University of Utah and graduate from the Elson S Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University. 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. He has always been a fan of type II fun and when he realized that medicine was the ultimate type II fun, he decided to enroll. When he’s not busy with school he enjoys climbing, biking, skiing, running long distances, and eating doughnuts.

Dr. JENNA WILEY, MD

Board Advisor

Dr. Wiley currently works at a community ED in Portland, OR as well as the Mountain Clinic at Mt Hood Meadows after finishing both residency and a wilderness medicine fellowship at OHSU. She grew up in California and attended medical school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She has been active in mountain search and rescue since 2009, volunteering for the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit (BAMRU) as well as South Orange Rescue Squad's Technical Rescue Team, NC Statewide Medical Assistance Team, and Central NC Search and Rescue. Currently she serves as the assistant medical director and rescue member for Portland Mountain Rescue and medical director for Wildland Saw. She also has a special interest in scuba and rescue diving after working at Divers Alert Network and had the opportunity to participate in a high altitude study to Everest Base Camp with Xtreme Everest prior to medical school. She enjoys teaching for Vertical Medicine Resources and lecturing for various local EMS teams. In her spare time, she enjoys rock climbing, mountaineering, wheel-throwing pottery, and backpacking with her rescue pup Ziggy.

Dr. ANDREW LUKS, MD

Board Advisor

Dr. Luks is a faculty member in the decision 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 medical and trauma surgical ICUs. Outside of his clinical duties, he maintains an actively scholarly program in high altitude medicine and physiology with a focus on travel to high altitude with underlying medical conditions, while at the same time engaging in a variety of educational endeavors in the UW School of Medicine. 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 into 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.

Dr. CHELSEA MCAUSLAN, MD

Board Advisor, former PNWM Board Member 2023-2024

Dr. Mcauslan is a recent graduate from Washington State University. She loves creating community amongst outdoor enthusiasts. Her favorite part of medical school has been learning and pushing herself alongside good friends within the medical field and in the vertical world on rocks.  You can count on her to always be stoked and always have poor rope management. 

Dr. ERIN KINNEY, MD

Board Advisor, former PNWM Vice President 2023-2024 and NWMC5 co-chair 2022-2023

Dr. Kinney is a PGY-1 in Emergency Medicine at the University of Washington. During residency, she is excited to get involved with EMS and Airlift NW. She attended medical school at OHSU. While in medical school she was a vice-president of PNWM and co-chair for NWMC5. Prior to medical school she worked on concussion research at Seattle Children’s and volunteered as a ski instructor for Outdoors for All, an adaptive ski school at Snoqualmie Pass. In her free time Erin can be found mountain biking and training for her next enduro race, rehabbing her knee to ski as much as possible, climbing mountains or relaxing on a sailboat.