Presenters 

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Sheets is a board-certified emergency physician living in Eldorado Springs, Colorado. She did her medical training in Denver at the University of Colorado and her residency in Emergency Medicine at Denver Health Medical Center. Prior to going into medicine, she was a climbing guide and professional ski patroller in the Colorado Rockies. Currently she is the medical director and mission leader for Rocky Mountain Rescue Group in Boulder, Colorado, as well as a rescue tech for the Colorado Hoist Rescue Team. Dr. Sheets is the immediate past president of the Mountain Rescue Association, the new chair of the MRA medical committee and the MRA delegate to the International Commission on Alpine Rescue’s MedCom. She recently did her 1000th mission response for Rocky Mountain Rescue Group.

Steve is a 26-year veteran of the Davis County Search and Rescue Team. He has served in various leadership roles including Team Commander, Mountain Team Leader, Training Officer, and more. Steve currently serves on the MRA Board of Directors and the Chairman for the MRA Intermountain Region. Steve has previously served as a firefighter and as a reserve sheriff’s deputy. 

Steve recently retired as the Rescue Market Manager for Petzl where he consulted with rescue teams, fire departments military units, police agencies and training organizations throughout the US and Canada.

Dale is a technical field team leader and mission coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, a member of the Colorado Hoist Rescue Team, and the MRA Delegate to the Air Rescue Commission in the International Commission on Alpine Rescue. He also serves as the medical advisor to AIARE and was an NPS rescue patrol volunteer on Denali. Since 2018 Dale has been involved in the Near Miss panel at the Spring Conference and is a believer in a commitment to continuous improvement.

Dr. Brett Foster is a member of Allegheny Mountain Rescue Group in Pittsburgh PA. He is an emergency physician, EMS medical director, and EMS fellowship core faculty with Allegheny Health Network. He attended medical school at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, OH, completed residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI and a subsequent EMS fellowship at the University of Louisville in Louisville, KY. Prior to medicine he served in the US Army as an engineer officer and civil affairs officer with the 101st Airborne Division. His prehospital background includes volunteer service as a firefighter, EMT, and HAZMAT technician and with the National Ski Patrol. He is a Fellow in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, a Diploma in Mountain Medicine candidate, deputy director of the Cuyahoga Valley Wilderness Medicine Group. He met his wife Amanda at an Advanced Wilderness Life Support course and works hard so her cat can live a good life. He is a certified skydiver and SCUBA diver and enjoys a range of outdoor activities as well as reading, travel, and piano.

Julie has 30 years of experience in prehospital, flight, and rural/remote emergency medicine, ranging from the Carolinas to above the Arctic Circle. She currently works as a flight nurse for Airlift Northwest, and volunteers as a paramedic based in Haines, Alaska where she also serves as the EMS director for the Haines Volunteer Fire Department. She has been a Lead Instructor for Wilderness Medical Associates International since 2002, and became Curriculum Director in 2023. She enjoys living close to the land and sea, backcountry touring in a variety of forms, probably every human-powered sport that happens on top of water, and supporting her husband's distant cycling habits.

Christopher Kall is the Vice President of Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Unit (IMSARU) where he serves as a Search Specialist and a member of the K-9 and Mountain Bike Specialty Teams.  Chris is happiest in the backcountry where he loves to hike, ski, and fish. 

Charley Shimanski is a 35-year veteran of Alpine Rescue Team, Past President of the ICAR Air Rescue Commission, Mountain Rescue Program Coordinator for Flight for Life Colorado and former Director of Training for Air Rescue Systems. A recognized helicopter rescue educator, Charley is the author of all of the MRA Helicopter rescue training guidebooks.

Dawn Mazzagetti (Wilson) has been a member of Alpine Rescue Team since 2007 and has served as the team’s Public Information Officer for 15 years, in addition to her role as a Colorado Search and Rescue PIO and Sponsorship Director for the Mountain Rescue Association. 

With more than 30 years of media experience, she has communicated through live media interviews, classrooms, and to large public audiences. Dawn is enthusiastic about helping others find their voice and deliver presentations with confidence, clarity, and strength—no matter the setting.

Christopher Van Tilburg is an American physician and award-winning author of 12 books including Crisis on Mount Hood: Stories from 100 Years of Mountain Rescue. He is a member of Hood River Crag Rats and Portland Mountain Rescue. He’s medical director for all four teams that cover SAR on Mount Hood. He is past chair of the MRA MedCom and a delegate for MRA to International Commission for Alpine Rescue. Van Tilburg lives in Hood River, Oregon.

Cianna is a Search & Rescue Manager with the Idaho Mountain Search & Rescue Unit. She is additionally a member of the Technical Rescue and MTB Specialty Teams, former Training Director, and lead of the Snow Safety Development Program. She tries to spend most of her free time skiing, mountain biking, bikepacking, fly fishing, and rafting. To fund all these activities, Cianna works for a federal agency, primarily managing salmon habitat improvement projects. Previously, Cianna was a member of Box Elder County Sheriff Search and Rescue (Utah) and has lived in and traveled to multiple places globally to study and research geology and landscape evolution. 

Luc Mehl has traveled over 10,000 miles throughout Alaska by foot, ski, bike, boat, and ice skate. Luc is a wilderness risk management and rescue training professional based in Anchorage, Alaska. His work has been recognized with several national awards: public service, leadership, and two book awards. More info at triplepointtraining.com.

Matt started in SAR fifteen years ago with the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit (BAMRU), a mountain rescue team that responds to mutual aid searches in some of the most remote and technical parts of California.  After moving to Tahoe, he maintained his involvement with BAMRU while also joining both Nevada County SAR and the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue team, which specializes in winter backcountry rescues in the North Tahoe area, often under adverse weather and avalanche conditions.

While he still enjoys getting into the field, Matt's SAR career has increasingly focused on incident planning and management.  He has published research through the Mountain Rescue Association examining the impact of terrain on lost person behavior, and worked to evolve existing search planning techniques to incorporate those findings.  He has also helped manage some of the largest and most complex searches in recent California history.

Matt is a software engineer by trade, and after noticing shortcomings with existing mapping software when applied to SAR, began working on new mapping tools, eventually developing the recreational trip planning website CalTopo and its SAR-focused variant SARTopo.  These applications have pioneered several new mapping techniques, including popularizing the use of slope angle shading to assess terrain steepness, which is now widely relied upon for avalanche safety.  CalTopo is now heavily used across the nation for public safety mapping in both urban and wilderness environments.

Matt is a Wilderness EMT and has a BSc from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Clayton is an Anchorage-based software engineer, data analyst, and operational field member for the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group (AMRG), where he also serves as Board Secretary. Initially drawn to search and rescue through rock climbing and an interest in technical rope rescue, he quickly pivoted to providing critical technical support for AMRG's field operations.

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Professionally, Clayton is an Engineer III at GCI Communication Corp., specializing in Linux systems, network infrastructure, and embedded hardware. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering: Computer Engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

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Combining his engineering background with his SAR field experience, Clayton builds open-source tools to modernize rescue coordination. His focus on operational tech support drove him to research LoRa mesh networks and secure an MRA research grant to field-test hardware for search operations. He is the creator of MeshTopo, a gateway bridging Meshtastic networks with CalTopo for real-time asset tracking. He is also actively developing two other software projects to validate workflows and offline resources for use during SAR missions, and ease the workflows for responders.

Heiko Stopsack is a Senior Paramedic / Rescue Specialist with King County Medic One - King County Sheriff's Air Support Unit.   At home in the Columbia Gorge, he volunteers as a member of the Hood River Crag Rats Mountain Rescue team.  Currently serving as the Mountain Rescue Association's delegate to the ICAR avalanche commission and a board member of the Alpine Medical Research Institute, a non-profit that provides mountain medicine education for rescuers. Professional member of the American Avalanche Association.  

Pat Dryer has over a decade of experience in avalanche forecasting, mountain rescue, and emergency response operations in Alaska. He has been a dedicated volunteer with Juneau Mountain Rescue, supporting avalanche rescue, technical rescue operations, incident command functions, and the integration of sUAS platforms for search, reconnaissance, and situational awareness in complex mountainous terrain. He is also a founding member of the Coastal Alaska Avalanche Center and a former Eaglecrest Ski Area patroller, bringing both technical expertise and a lifelong passion for skiing, winter safety, and rescue operations to his work.  

Roger Mortimer, MD came into rescue from caving.  He started teaching cave and technical rescue in 1996.  He is an instructor for the National Cave Rescue Commission and served as the NCRC’s national training coordinator for 3 years and is their delegate to the International Commission on Alpine Rescue.  He volunteers with Fresno County SAR.  Rescue lead to an academic interest in suspension syndrome which has now devolved into research on litter packaging.

Genevieve Netter is a member of the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, where they serve as the MRA Liaison, and a member of the NPS Saguaro SAR team. A climber and mountaineer for over 20 years, they bring a risk aware, safety focused approach to all aspects of rescue operations. Genevieve has been involved with the MRA Near Miss Panel since first presenting in 2024 and is committed to fostering transparency, shared learning, and continuous improvement across the rescue community.

Dan has served as a volunteer with Salt Lake County Search and Rescue for seven years, participating in 200+ missions. He has instructed search and rescue courses for University of Utah undergraduate programs as well as the School of Medicine. He currently holds certifications in SPRAT rope access, swiftwater rescue, avalanche rescue, and as a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM).

Based in North Vancouver, Canada, Robynne is a sales professional with deep experience managing professional accounts across the U.S. With a decade working in different business sectors at Arc'teryx and a background in outdoor recreation & tourism management, Robynne is passionate about exploring the outdoors globally, seeking adventure, cultural connection, and perspective through international experiences

Martin has been a technical specialist with Alpine Rescue Team for 13 years. He is a Wildland Firefighter, teaches rope access, rigging, and several disciplines of rescue techniques.

He has led many expeditions around the world, skied to the South Pole, and summited the highest mountain in all seven continents.  He lives in Colorado and has a very tolerant wife, and two young children. When Martin gets any spare time, he enjoys mountain biking, rock and ice climbing.

Karsten Delap is an IFMGA/UIAGM Licensed Mountain Guide and founder of Pisgah Climbing School in North Carolina. With decades of experience guiding rock, alpine, and ski objectives worldwide, he brings extensive technical expertise to mountain rescue training.
Originally from Indiana, Karsten has climbed Grade V big walls across the U.S. (including the Black Canyon, Longs Peak, and Zion), ice and snow routes in the North Cascades and New England, and major alpine and high-altitude peaks in South America, Africa, Argentina, and the Indian Himalaya. A dedicated rescuer, Karsten serves as the technical director for Transylvania County Rescue Squad, volunteers with multiple other search and rescue teams, and regularly instructs technical rope rescue, climber evacuation, and high-angle techniques for professional teams and military units. He has also served on the board of the American Mountain Guides Association and is a Leave No Trace Master Educator.

Anna Marie Alewine is a full-time instructor with Pisgah Climbing School in North Carolina. She guides year-round on rock and ice, drawing on extensive experience across the Southeast, Colorado, the Tetons, the White Mountains, and more. A dedicated educator and rescuer, she holds certifications including AMGA Multipitch Instructor, SPI & CWI Provider, Ice Instructor Course Graduate, and Alpine Snow & Glacier Course Graduate, along with SPRAT Level 2. She actively volunteers with local search and rescue teams, bringing practical technical rope and high-angle rescue skills to the Mountain Rescue Conference.

Josie’s career in the outdoor industry has included guiding and personal climbing expeditions around the globe, working on the Yosemite Search & Rescue team and teaching wilderness medicine. Stress exposure throughout this career gave her personal insight into the value of resilience training. She is currently in a masters program in Performance Psychology, providing mental training to athletes and serving on the Lander Search & Rescue resilience team. As Director of Education at Responder Alliance, she provides training and oversees curriculum development.

Eva Shimanski has flown in and underneath countless helicopters in many countries and has served and supported on mountain helicopter rescue training operations with the International Commission for Alpine Rescue (ICAR), MRA, and Flight for Life. She is a volunteer with the Mountain Rescue Program at Flight for Life Colorado, and videographer for the Mountain Rescue Association’s Education Committee.