Linda E Keyes
Emergency Physician
Living in Colorado, United States
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Linda Keyes is a board-certified emergency physician, the past-president of the Wilderness Medical Society and current vice-president of the International Society of Mountain Medicine. Since she graduated from Yale School of Medicine, she has spent her career combining medicine, research, and outdoor adventure. Her area of expertise is high altitude medicine.
She has authored practice guidelines and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr Keyes’ research has improved our understanding of the complications of pregnancy at high altitude, the pathophysiology of acute mountain sickness, and whether or not people with hypertension can travel safely to the mountains. Her other wilderness medicine activities include being a volunteer ski patroller, an expedition medic, and a former mountain rescue team member. She teaches mountain medicine to doctors from around the world in courses in the US and Nepal.
Her leadership goals include elevating the quality of wilderness medicine research and promoting equity and inclusiveness in wilderness and mountain medicine. Her leadership philosophy is “lift as you climb,” and she values creating opportunities for others.
Dr Keyes understands that without wilderness, there is no wilderness medicine. She also believes that wilderness is medicine. Wild places are critical for our mental and physical well-being. Climate change impacts not only access to wilderness, but also has direct negative effects on human health. Therefore, it is critical that physicians play a role in protecting our planet.
Her personal essays and award-winning short stories have appeared in The Common, The Literary Review, Hippocampus and elsewhere. She lives with her family in Boulder, Colorado and spends as much of her free time as possible skiing or otherwise playing in the mountains.
