Tom D. Kirsch, MD, MPH, FACEP

Course Director

EMAIL ADDRESS: tkirsch1@jhmi.edu

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:
BA, Fine Arts, Creighton Univ, Omaha, NE; MD, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE; MPH, Epidemiology, JHSPH, Baltimore, MD; Emergency Medicine Residency, Geo Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.

CURRENT SCHOOL/HOSPITAL AFFILIATION:
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health

CURRENT OCCUPATION:
Emergency Physician, Director of Operations, Department of Emergency Medicine, The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Deputy Director, Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR), The Johns Hopkins Institutions;
Co-Director, Center for Refugee and Disaster Response (CRDR), The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

WILDERNESS CERTIFICATION:
None (other than a bunch of climbing and canyoneering courses).

AREAS OF WILDERNESS INTEREST:
Backpacking, canyoneering, climbing (rock and some non-technical mountaineering), mountain biking.  The GRAND CANYON and southern Utah.

WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELED:
Pretty much everywhere (but not much in Africa). Currently I focus on the Southwest USA, Sierra Nevadas and the Rockies.

HOBBIES:
Besides the above: Torturing my kids by dragging them into the outdoors, photography, painting, snow skiing.

ANY SPECIFIC WILDERNESS EXPERIENCES/STORIES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE:
I am a backpacker who began getting into very rugged areas so had to learn technical skills with ropes- So now I canyoneer in really complex and beautiful environments.  I am from Arizona, and consider the Grand Canyon the Center of the Universe and the Southwest to be its suburbs.  I spend as much time there as possible.  I believe that wilderness medicine is just one aspect of ‘Austere Medicine’ that encompasses global health, disaster medicine and expedition medicine.