Dr. Seth C. Hawkins, an emergency physician who specializes in EMS and wilderness medicine, founded ACWM in 2007 in the state of North Carolina.
This strategy increased geographic access throughout the region and provided organizational experience for the medical students at each host school.
Past ACWM Southeastern Student Wilderness Medicine Conference locations: In addition to its primary regional organizing function, ACWM has served as an incubator for other local and national programs, such as the Green EMS Initiative,[13] a precursor to the International Institute for Sustainability in Emergency Services.
These include partnership with the New River Alliance of Climbers in Fayetteville WV (arising from the need to address wilderness medicine education within the southeastern climbing community) and Friends of Seneca (positioning first aid caches at the popular and historic climbing area Seneca Rocks).
[17] This lifetime achievement award is given to individuals or groups who have made “extraordinary, lasting and substantial contributions to wilderness medicine in the southern Appalachians.”