Kate Batten

Kate started in emergency medical response as a teenager in New Zealand on a volunteer Search and Rescue team. SAR response as a team leader and medic continued during her years in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. After her discharge, Kate has gone on to use her training and experience in wilderness medicine as a hiking/biking guide; in Antarctica; in interior/remote Alaska and on various personal and guiding expeditions. Now based in Ely MN, she works as a paramedic on an ambulance service responding locally and in the Boundary Waters Canoe Areas Wilderness (BWCA). She also provides medical response for wildland fire as a fireline paramedic and as a Medical Unit Leader. Instructing for WMA gives Kate an opportunity to share her passions for emergency medicine and the outdoors with her joy of teaching. She also enjoys learning from her students as “the day we stop learning is the day we stop breathing.”