Marc Burdick

My name is Marc Burdick (he/him). I live in Western Massachusetts where I grew up. I moved back here approximately two years ago after 27 years in Colorado and California. My primary background is in EMS and public health management. I have been involved in working in emergency medical services for 34 years and a paramedic for 27 years. Currently, I am the Director of Ski and Mountain Bike Patrols at Berkshire East Mountain Resort in Charlemont, Massachusetts.

I have been continuously certified and/or licensed in EMS for 34 years. I am a graduate of the Wilderness Paramedic Program at Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge. Following graduation from the University of Massachusetts in 1994, I moved to Colorado where I became a ski patroller at Beaver Creek Resort. While there, I also was hired and worked for Discovery at Vail, an experiential learning program associated with Pecos River Learning Centers, in providing experiential opportunities for change facilitation for companies. I also began working as a paramedic in Summit County Colorado, where I joined the search and rescue paramedic program. I was deployed and responded to numerous backcountry medical incidents including injuries, avalanches, technical rescues, and high risk searches providing advanced life support in the backcountry/wilderness setting.

Life then took me to Santa Barbara California, where I joined the public health department working in disaster and pandemic planning. I specifically worked on developing plans for mass vaccination around pandemic influenza as well as integrating data from emergency medical services into syndrome surveillance. I was fortunate enough to meet one of my mentors, Dr. Mimi Doohan, and became very involved with setting up and establishing street medicine programs in Southern California. Working with homeless populations and street medicine has and continues to be a very amazing part of my life.

I then headed back to Summit County Colorado, where I was recruited to be the Director of EMS. Back there, I now not only participated in, but also ran the search and rescue paramedic program which had become a model in Colorado. I then made my way to the next county to the west, Eagle County, where I worked in EMS management and was tasked with setting up a formalized search and rescue paramedic program there in partnership with Vail Mountain Rescue. I deployed on a number of backcountry rescues in providing advanced life support. I was asked to join the faculty for a very specialized course called “MESS” – Medical Emergencies in Snow Sports. This course prepares volunteer physicians of the US Ski and Snowboard Team to travel with the athletes around the world. Essentially, it was a three-day crash course to teach physicians how to be Paramedics! (ha) Through all of my career I have remained clinically active as a paramedic and additionally hold a flight paramedic (FP-C) credential.During my time and Vail, I also was a paramedic with the Vail Ski Patrol.

Circumstances in life brought me back to the East Coast a couple years ago. I was offered an opportunity to have a fun shift in my career and become the Director of Ski and Mountain Bike Patrol at a resort. It’s a very cool small ski area in western Massachusetts, where I grew up. We are in the process of potentially building a wilderness medicine school to support education both for our internal needs and within the region. We are developing partnerships with two hospitals and their wilderness medicine physician fellowships. I am also a certified instructor in Advanced Medical Life Support (AMLS). I continue to work part-time as a paramedic.

Behind all of this busy professional life what I am most passion about is being outside. Backcountry skiing has been a big part of my life for a very long time. I spent a lot of time in the backcountry out west with friends. I also am an avid trail runner and mountain biker. When I ski my heels are free!
I am really really excited to become an instructor with WMA. I really enjoy teaching and mentoring folks in wilderness medicine. I endeavor to use my background and experience to develop and mentor people in their careers and interest in wilderness medicine.

But beyond all of this, but I also really love is cooking and spending time with my Labrador retriever, Josie.