Marlena Strandir
I am a Family Medicine physician in Dillingham, Alaska. I get to do great medicine because there are no specialists in our region. The nearest tertiary care facility is 350 miles away by plane, which actually made the transition to a rural hospital in Nepal feel very natural. Dillingham was my first job out of residency and I just began my seventh year of practice here. I love my job.
Ryan Mason
Ryan Mason is a medical school student at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, in Providence, R.I. During his college years, he worked various seasonal jobs helping out with environmental projects and activities, such as trail building. As a Wilderness First Responder, he often found himself caring for injuries that one sees while working with various environmental tools. Later, he volunteered at South Pole Station, eventually leading the trauma team there, where he worked with a single physician to stabilize and transport sick and injured patients. It was that challenge of providing care in austere environments that lead him to apply to medical school. Following his graduation in 2014, Ryan would like to return to the South Pole Station as a physician and work on international health projects around the world.