We’re excited to invite you to an evening with two leaders in extreme medicine. Josh Merson, Program Director of Northeastern’s Extreme Medicine program, sits down with Dr. Sarah Spelsberg for a wide-ranging conversation about life and medicine at the edges of the map.
Sarah brings a remarkable perspective to the table. She recently spent three and a half months in the South Pacific working as part of the medical crew for the CBS television show Survivor, and she’ll share what that experience was like behind the scenes. Beyond the set, Sarah serves as Director of U.S. Operations for World Extreme Medicine, the medical lead for Project NEPTUNE 100, and a Faculty member for the Northeastern Extreme Medicine Program.
Her career has taken her from the emergency department on Unalaska in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to medevac missions aboard Coast Guard C-130s in the Bering Sea. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, a Fellow of Extreme and Wilderness Medicine, and a Fellow National of The Explorers Club. Her work has been featured by the BBC, The New Yorker, and Science Friday, and she was recognized as a “Hometown Hero” by the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Coast Guard in 2020.
The conversation will touch on expedition medicine, practicing in remote and austere environments, and the growing role of Northeastern’s Extreme Medicine program in preparing the next generation of clinicians for this kind of work.
