Our Team
Steve Smith
Founder / Lead Consultant
Steve Smith has worked in the outdoor industry for over thirty years, in the field, in the office, in the board room, and in national conference leadership roles, specializing in program leadership, risk management, and staff training.
His career has included leadership roles with national organizations including Outward Bound and The Student Conservation Association. Steve served as the Chair of the Wilderness Risk Management Conference (WRMC) for three years (2014 - 2016). He has served on various organizations' accreditation review and risk management teams, including the Gap Year Association and The Association for Experiential Education.
He has a master's degree in teaching English, along with years of university-level teaching experience, and earned a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification from the Society for Human Resources Management, all of which help him view outdoor education through a variety of educational and administrative lenses.
Smith is the primary author and editor of Beneficial Risks - The Evolution of Risk Management for Outdoor & Experiential Education Programs.
Joshua Cole is an owner and guide at North Cascades Mountain Guides and has more than 15 years of experience working in the outdoor education and guiding industries.
He has given trainings and presentations on wilderness risk management to numerous organizations, and has been a regular presenter at the Wilderness Risk Management Conference since 2009. Josh served as Washington Program Director for the Northwest Outward Bound School for 8 years, is a lead instructor for Wilderness Medicine Training Center, and has worked as a professional ski patroller. He is an AMGA certified ski guide, single-pitch instructor, and is working towards his AMGA certification in the rock and alpine disciplines.
Josh's years of administrative leadership experience, along with formal training and hands-on application of risk management and experiential education provides depth to our team and offers unique insight to clients.
Joshua Cole
Associate Consultant
Taylor Feldman is an Associate Consultant who is passionate about risk-aware adventuring, mountaineering, foraging, dancing, and forest-bathing. Based in Portland, OR, she has a decade-long career as a wilderness instructor and has led teams up more than 50 peaks in the US and abroad.
She holds certifications as a Wilderness First Responder, Leave No Trace Master Educator, and Avalanche AIARE Level 1 and teaches Wilderness Medicine.
Taylor's passion for incorporating justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion into all of her projects include workshop facilitation, curriculum development, and partnership building. Personal projects include "Building a Culture of Accountability," a 2020 workshop on how to repair after white people cause racist harm; co-authoring a book chapter on equity in the outdoors as it pertains to risk management ; and being the Lead Guide and a feature narrative in "Who's On Top? LGBTQs Climb Mount Hood," a documentary which premiered Spring 2021.
Taylor Feldman
Associate Consultant
Amberleigh Hammond manages safety systems for the Sierra Club at a national level.
Prior to joining the Sierra Club, she managed safety systems and served as the national medical evaluator for the Student Conservation Association (SCA).
Her primary career focus is medical evaluation, leader training, development of and compliance with field standards, and incident management/response. She has more recently developed resources and presentations on larger organizational matters such as organizational culture.
Prior to the SCA, Amberleigh worked at Outward Bound for six years as the national senior medical evaluator for OBUSA.
She is an Outdoor Emergency Care instructor, teaches wilderness medicine courses, and is an EMT, ski patroller, and Mental Health First Aid instructor.
Amberleigh is based in Missoula, MT.
Amberleigh Hammond
Associate Consultant
Amberleigh Hammond
Associate Consultant
Jay A. Satz brings over 30 years of nonprofit executive leadership, risk management design and implementation, program design and innovation, and youth conservation service/outdoor education program experience.
Drawn to this risk management work early in his career, he attended the very first Wilderness Risk Management Conference in 1994 and has been involved in a WRMC leadership / speaking role ever since, including receiving the conference’s highest honor for risk management service, leadership and innovation, The Charles “Reb” Gregg Award, in 2016. He has built programs, created partnerships, solved problems, overcome challenges, and positively influenced many lives through his youth / conservation leadership at a local, state, and federal level across multiple decades.
As an associate consultant, Jay brings a depth of experience, broad expertise, and a perspective on experiential / outdoor risk management that serves our clients in unique ways, challenging them to be their best while building on their inherent strengths.
Jay A. Satz
Associate Consultant
Amberleigh Hammond
Associate Consultant
Chris Bartram
Associate Consultant
Chris Bartram is an experienced guide, educator, and program administrator in the outdoor industry with over a decade of diverse expertise. Since 2012, he has worked across multiple facets of outdoor education, ranging from guiding and field instruction to program management and academic teaching. Chris spent seven years in leadership roles, including Maine Bound Director at the University of Maine and Program Director for the Northwest Outward Bound School. In addition to his leadership experience, Chris’ instructional and guiding experience is equally extensive. He has more than 800 field days and has taught over a dozen academic courses.
Chris earned a B.S. in Adventure Education from Plymouth State University and M.A. in College Student Development, with a concentration in Outdoor Program Administration. He also holds over a dozen outdoor related certifications, further strengthening his expertise.
Beyond his practical experience, Chris has co-authored four research articles on diversity and inclusion, incident reporting, and risk management in outdoor programs.
Gates Richards
Operations Director
& Associate Consultant
Gates Richards has been involved in outdoor education and EMS since the early 90's. Over the years he's worked outdoor programming throughout the Rockies, Pacific Northwest and Alaska as a field instructor and supervisor for several outdoor programs. He's worked urban EMS in DC, WA, CO and WY. Gates is also an active member of the Fremont County Search and Rescue team in Lander, WY.
Gates began teaching for NOLS Wilderness Medicine in 1998 and has been awarded the Wilderness Medical Society's Warren Bowman award for contributions to wilderness medicine by a non-physician as well as the National Collegiate EMS Foundation's Distinguished Service Award. He is the former NOLS Wilderness Medicine Associate Director.
Gates has a passion for understanding how people make decisions, and how to improve that process.
Gates, his wife and their children live in Lander, WY where they can be found running, biking, skiing and fishing. But not at the same time.