ISHARE
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Meet the Team
The scientists, mountaineers, and organizers behind ISHARE come from around the world, united by a shared commitment to women's health and high-altitude research.
Published Research
Meet the team through their work.
Monika Brodmann Maeder, MD, MME
Lead Organizer
Monika Brodmann Maeder is an emergency physician and medical educator specializing in high-altitude and mountain medicine. A university lecturer at ETH Zurich and research fellow at the University of Bern, she was the first female president of the International Society of Mountain Medicine and spent six years as a senior researcher at EURAC's Institute for Mountain Emergency Medicine.
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In 2011 she led the Sisters' Expedition to Dhaulagiri VII in Nepal — the predecessor to ISHARE. She spent fourteen years as an alpine emergency physician with REGA Swiss Air Rescue and has trained helicopter rescuers in Nepal.
Linda Keyes, MD​​
Scientific Organizer
Dr. Linda Keyes is a board-certified emergency physician, Vice President of the International Society of Mountain Medicine, and past President of the Wilderness Medical Society. Since medical school at Yale, she has collaborated with researchers and clinicians on five continents to understand the effects of high altitude on the human body.
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Her work challenges the gender gap in high-altitude research and advocates for equity in medicine and mountaineering. She has conducted research at altitude in locations ranging from the Himalayas to the Andes, and brings both scientific rigor and a deep personal passion for the mountains to the ISHARE team.
Martha Tissot van Patot, Ph.D.
Scientific Organizer
Dr. Martha Tissot van Patot is a cardiovascular pulmonary physiologist, a former associate professor at the University of Colorado Medical School and a board member and section editor of the Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal. Her research expertise is in cardiovascular pulmonary physiology, with a focus on altitude illnesses and the effects of high altitude on pregnancy and placental development.
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Through a visiting professorship at the University of Oxford, she discovered the life of Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald (1872–1973), the first to document how men and women adjust to living at high altitude. Martha is now writing her biography and is proud to extend Mabel's work more than a century later. https://www.marthatissotvanpatot.com/
Lhakpa Phuti Sherpa
Expedition Organizer
Lhakpa Phuti Sherpa is a mountaineer, philanthropist, author, and tourism professional with decades of experience developing mountaineering and adventure tourism in Nepal. She served as former president and executive director of the Nepal Mountain Academy and was Deputy Team Leader of the historic Nepal Women's Expedition to Everest, led by Pasang Lhamu Sherpa — the first Nepalese woman to summit Everest.​
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She is the founder of Luxury DMC, a Kathmandu-based mountaineering and tourism company, and brings deep knowledge of Himalayan expeditions, Sherpa culture, and high-altitude logistics to the ISHARE team.
Silvia Chaulagain, MSc
Scientific and Communications Organizer Nepal
Silvia Chaulagain is a public health researcher specializing in women's sexual and reproductive health in Nepal. She is an MCW Global Fellow and Chevening Scholar, completing her MSc in Public Health at the University of Southampton. She is the former founder of Target Health Nepal, an NGO focused on grassroots sexual and reproductive health and rights projects.
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Over her career she has worked with numerous international and local NGOs on women's and adolescent health, leading and contributing to policy documents and evidence-based health interventions. She brings both scientific expertise and deep community connections to ISHARE's work in Nepal.