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We are the Team
Led by Women
PD.Dr. med Monika Brodmann
Maeder
Lead Organizer
Monika Brodmann Maeder is an emergency physician and medical educator with a focus on high-altitude medicine and mountain medicine. She is currently a university lecturer at ETH Zurich and a research fellow at the University of Bern. She has conducted research into accidental hypothermia and altitude-related health problems, notably during her time as a senior researcher at EURAC’s Institute for Mountain Emergency Medicine (2015–2021). She holds an International Diploma in Mountain Medicine (2000) and an International Diploma in
Expedition and Wilderness Medicine (2013). From 2021 to 2025, she was President of the Swiss Institute of Medical Education and Head of the Swiss Delegation at the Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes (UEMS). In this role, she led major reforms in Swiss
and European medical education.
Her mountaineering and expedition achievements include leading the Sisters’ Expedition to Dhaulagiri VII in Nepal in 2011 and participating in the Swiss Medical Expedition to Skyang Kangri in Pakistan in 1999. She has trekked in Nepal and Tibet, including the Mount Kailash circuit, the Annapurna circuit, in the Khumbu region, Mera Peak and Island Peak. She worked extensively as an alpine emergency physician with REGA Swiss Air Rescue between 1998 and 2012, and has educated helicopter rescuers in Nepal. She was the first female president of the International Society of Mountain Medicine and has close ties with Nepal. As a council member of the Nicole Niquille Foundation, she oversees the medical aspects at PLNN Hospital in Lukla, Nepal, and helps to advance emergency and rescue medicine in the country. She continues to promote education in high-altitude and mountain emergency medicine worldwide, with a particular focus on female leadership.
Linda Keyes, MD
​
Scientific Organizer
Dr Keyes is a board-certified emergency physician, a vice-president of the International Society of Mountain Medicine and past-president of the Wilderness Medical Society. Since she was a Yale medical student, she has travelled the globe in pursuit of science. She has partnered with researchers and clinicians on five continents to understand the effects of high altitude on the human body. She challenges norms and advocates for gender equity in all aspects of life. She strives to create positive change through collaboration and inspiring others to achieve. The mountains are her happy place. She believes in wilderness as medicine and in conservation for the health of the planet.
Martha Tissot van Patot, Ph.D.
Scientific Organizer
Dr. Martha Tissot van Patot, MS, Ph.D., is a former associate professor from the University of Colorado Medical School and is currently a board member and section editor for the Wilderness and Environmental Medicine Journal. Her expertise is in cardiovascular pulmonary physiology, and her research laboratory focused on altitude illnesses and how high altitude affects pregnancy and placental development. Martha’s current passion is to bring recognition to women who have been overlooked in the history of science. Through a visiting professorship at the University of Oxford, UK, she discovered the life of the first woman to study medicine at Oxford, Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald (1872-1973), and is writing her biography. In 1911, Mabel discovered how men and women acclimatize to living at high altitude. She is thrilled to be involved in efforts that will finally extend Mabel’s research on women more than a century later. (https://www.marthatissotvanpatot.com​)
Lhakpa Phuti Sherpa
Expedition Organizer
Lhakpa Phuti is a mountaineer, philanthropist, author, and tourism professional. She is the former president and executive director of the Nepal Mountain Academy and was the Deputy Team Leader of the Nepal Women's Expedition to Everest, which was led by Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, the first Nepalese woman to climb Mount Everest. She is a pioneer in developing mountaineering and tourism in Nepal and runs the mountaineering tourism company Luxury DMC (https://luxurydmcnepal.com).
Silvia Chaulagain, MSc
Scientific Organizer & Communications lead, Nepal
Silvia is a public health researcher specializing in women’s sexual and reproductive health in Nepal. She is also the former founder of the local NGO Target Health Nepal, where she led many grassroots SRHR projects. Over the years, she has worked with several INGOs and NGOs in Nepal on women’s and adolescent's health issues.
Silvia is also an MCW Global Fellow and a Chevening Award recipient. She completed her MSc in Public Health at the University of Southampton through the Chevening Scholarship. Since then, she has led and contributed to several policy documents and research focused on developing evidence based health interventions for women and adolescent girls.
Silvia is happy to be part of this research exploring women’s health at high altitudes, an important area that has historically received limited research attention.
