Outdoor Medicine and Wild Med Wednesday: An Interview with Jeena Fuller Kinney, PA-C
Welcome to the first post for 2026! Let’s start off with a really awesome educational opportunity for physicians and wilderness medicine practitioners and outdoor enthusiasts. It’s Wild Med Wednesday, and we are excited to be interviewing Jeena Fuller Kinney, PA-C. Jeena is going to tell us a bit about herself and how Wild Med Wednesday came about. We love the tagline for WMW: Training for the Edge of the Map. So let’s fire up the Musa engine for 2026. We have a lot to do and this is a great way to start. We send out our best thoughts for everyone that this year will be one that turns towards peace, each other, education and healthcare for all, and an equal playing field. Jam Jam!!
1. Tell us about yourself. where are you currently working? what is your specialty?
I’m a Physician Assistant working in vascular surgery, where I care for patients with complex peripheral arterial and aneurysmal disease. Outside of the operating room, I have a strong interest in wilderness and austere medicine — the intersection where clinical excellence meets resource limitation. My background includes time as an EMT and firefighter in Colorado, Montana, and Michigan, outdoor guiding, and fisheries biologist work in the Bering Sea. Now, I spend time raising my family, mentoring students from my alma mater, precepting students in surgery rotations, and dipping my toe into developing wilderness medicine curriculum at the graduate level, to name a few things.
2. How did you come up with the idea for Wild Med Wednesday?
Wild Med Wednesday grew out of a desire to make wilderness medicine education more accessible, engaging, and community-driven during the COVID shutdown in 2020. Along-side a PA school classmate, Luke Counterman, and my faculty mentor, Mary Showstark, we decided to create a space where we could show people how to connect virtually. Our PA program was a hybrid online format, so we were well versed in using Zoom for nontraditional applications. Through the sponsorship of the Wilderness Medical Society, we developed a recurring monthly lecture series where people could learn, share, and build competence together from anywhere in the world. By offering free FAWM credits to students and residents, we also aim to increase involvement in wilderness medicine from early-on in caregivers’ training. It’s evolved into a structured educational series with global speakers, active community participation, and a new goal of growing a nonprofit arm that supports a scholarship fund and other service-driven projects..
3. Have you found the wilderness medicine community to be responsive?
Absolutely — overwhelmingly so. The wilderness medicine community is one of the most collaborative and generous networks I’ve ever been part of. Whether it’s clinicians volunteering to teach, students showing up eager to learn, or organizations partnering to amplify reach, there’s a shared spirit of curiosity and service that keeps the momentum alive. People in this field aren’t just passionate about medicine; they’re passionate about people, the planet, and preparedness — and that alignment makes things happen. Working with the Musa Masala team was rewarding, a partnership that allowed for easy growth, and showed just how powerful human ideas and connection can be.
4. What’s been your favorite program or the most challenging?
Our live sessions from countries outside my own! Most recently our live session from Nepal stands out as both my favorite and the most challenging. We partnered with Dr. Anumesh Dahal and the team at Musa Masala to stream directly from Nepal— discussing austere dentistry and rural healthcare delivery in real time. Coordinating an international broadcast, navigating language barriers, identifying technical challenges and time zone gymnastics was an adventure in itself. But it perfectly embodied the mission of Wild Med Wednesday: resourcefulness, connection, and storytelling from the frontlines of remote medicine.
5. What got you into the wilderness side of medicine? What are your favorite outdoor activities?
I’ve always been drawn to environments that test both physical and mental resilience. My early experiences as an EMT taught me the value of improvisation and calm under pressure — the same skills wilderness medicine demands. My favorite outdoor activities include mountain biking, skiing, trail running, and pretty much anything that involves dirt, snow, or elevation gain. The outdoors has always been my reset button — and my classroom.
6. What are some of your goals for the program?
The goal is to continue building Wild Med Wednesday into a sustainable, community-powered educational platform that bridges clinical expertise with global impact. In the near future, that means expanding our content library, offering CME/FAWM credits, and supporting wilderness and humanitarian medicine initiatives through developing a nonprofit arm. Learning to establish financial security to cover operational costs is our current big project! Long-term, I want Wild Med Wednesday to be a launch pad — where students, clinicians, and adventurers alike can learn, collaborate, and take those skills into the wild or wherever care is needed most.
About Jeena Fuller, PA-C, FAWM
Jeena is a Yale-trained Physician Assistant, mentor, and educator whose path has taken her from fire engines in Montana to commercial fishing boats in the Bering Sea. She has worked as an EMT/Firefighter, provided medical support for outdoor recreation events, and now mentors the next generation of PAs while working full-time in Vascular Surgery. When she’s not in the OR or teaching wilderness medicine, you can find her mountain biking, trail running, skiing, snowboarding, or making music.
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