Robert Sanders

Rob Sanders is a Pediatrician in San Antonio, Texas and assistant instructor with WMAI. He is a relatively recent transplant to South Texas, moving from the front range of Colorado a few years back. Since moving there has found a deep connection to west Texas and spends a great deal of time in the Big Bend area floating the Rio Grande, hiking the mountains and desert and exploring remote areas.  He grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, where he developed a love for the outdoors through Boy Scouts participating in frequent camping, trekking and remote travel experiences. He always knew he wanted to be in the medical field and pursued going to medical school shortly after attending the University of Colorado at Boulder. He went to Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and while there had the opportunity to do a rotation in Ecuador where he spent a month learning about community medicine in very rural communities and with tribes of the Amazon basin. Through the following years of his residency in Pediatrics and early career he was always looking for ways to meld 2 of the things he loved- medicine and the outdoors. He was able to go on multiple mission trips to Africa and Central America where he learned how important it was to be resourceful in places with less resources than the US. He spent many years recreating in the mountains of the west while living in Boulder, CO and came to love the outdoors even more. He was exposed to Wilderness Medicine through friends and finally took a WFR class. Spending time learning how to care for patients in the backcountry was a great new challenge and applying those skills on trips with friends proved to be incredibly useful.  After spending 12 years teaching doctors, PA’s and NP’s pediatric medicine at the bedside he decided to take up the new challenge of teaching Wilderness medicine.