At Desert Mountain Medicine, we strive to make decisions and connect with our students and the larger communities we’re a part of in ways that support the cultivation of a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just world for all people, especially those connected to outdoor recreation and education. The following actions speak to our commitment to diversity, equity and belonging.
DMM + Conservation Corps Partner Provider Program
We formed a partnership with the Arizona Conservation Corps (formally known as: Coconino Rural Environmental Corps) in 2009 to train their staff to teach wilderness first aid in-house and ensure equity in education for all Corps members as part of their pre-season training. Today, we are proudly partnering with several Conservation Corps throughout the US to provide training at a significant discount to ensure all corps members are prepared for the field:
Anti-Racism Education for Staff
Desert Mountain Medicine recognizes that internalized and systemic racism is a real and active force within our society, and that conscious and unconscious biases impact students’ learning experiences and success in our classrooms. DMM has a strict non-discrimination policy for all staff, instructors, and students, but nevertheless understands that unconscious, internalized racism is often present even in well-intentioned and kind individuals.
In an effort to support all our staff and instructors in creating actively anti-racist learning spaces, DMM offers customized trainings on anti-racism in wilderness medicine and the outdoor industry. This training teaches DMM instructors to recognize racist biases, tendencies, reactions, perceptions, and teaching methods. It supports instructors in interrupting racist processes within themselves and in their classrooms, and provides resources and tools to help instructors build anti-racist learning spaces for all students.
Cultural Competency Education
Desert Mountain Medicine teaches on the traditional homelands of indigenous peoples throughout the West, and partners with indigenous-led organizations and communities to deliver courses. DMM provides instructors who will be teaching within indigenous communities customized cultural competency training that teaches instructors about the diversity and complexity of tribal cultures and how these impact creating successful learning spaces.
Financial Aid & Scholarship Programs
DMM is committed to improving access to wilderness medicine education and increasing representation with the wilderness medicine and outdoor industries. Please visit the Diversity, Equity, and Belonging Programming + Scholarships page to learn more about our programming. In addition to our specialized programming, DMM offers payment plans and donates within our communities annually.
- Payment Plans – We will work with individuals to create a payment plan that fits their budget
- Donations -We donate $2500 in gift certificates to various organizations every year
For more information about these financial aid and scholarship programs please email us at: [email protected]
Revising Materials to Remove Gendered and Racist Language
DMM is working to revise course materials to better honor non-binary gender identity, while still recognizing the importance of sex and anatomy from a medical perspective. DMM has also revised curriculum to teach students to accurately assess skin condition on all skin pigments, and has removed the assumption of a white patient as the default.