BY KAREN BOSSICK

Jamie Lieberman, a retired anesthesiologist now living in Elkhorn, has been named president of the Wilderness Medical Society.

The Society is an international nonprofit comprised of more than 4,000 medical professionals. It provides hands-on training for members in wilderness areas, as well as conferences in which they learn the latest information to help them tend to medical emergencies involving rock climbing, whitewater river and other outdoor scenarios.

Lieberman was the point man for the Wilderness Medical Society’s meeting held in Sun Valley in March 2020 just before the pandemic hit.

He volunteers with Blaine County Search and Rescue and is a medical advisor for Sun Valley Trekking and Sun Valley Mountain Huts. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Boulder Mountain Tour, which hopes to run both in-person and virtually in February 2022.

His personal motto--“Dream it, plan it, do it”—has guided his outdoor pursuits from founding the DONS (Dudes on Nordic Skis) men’s ski program in Sun Valley to backcountry skiing. He can be found planning  bike trips, kiteboard trips and raft trips during other seasons.

Lieberman attended the University of Washington School of Medicine and Virginia Mason Medical Center as a resident. He spent more than 20 years in private practice and on the associate clinical faculty at Swedish Medical Center and the University of Washington in Seattle.

He discovered the Wilderness Medical Society in 2012 and since has earned the WMS diploma in Mountain Medicine and a Fellowship in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. He is a contributor to the “Wilderness & Environmental Medicine Journal” and “Wilderness Medicine” magazine, as well as a lecturer.

He joined the WMS board of directors in 2014 and previously served as secretary and treasurer.

The Wilderness Medical Society was founded in 1983 to keep people alive in the wild. Its last conference included nearly 800 people from 24 countries.