About Mary Ellen Doty
Mary Ellen Doty is a nurse practitioner, author, and the founder of Wilderness Medical Staffing — a company dedicated to deploying skilled healthcare providers to rural and underserved communities across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
Her journey into wilderness medicine began in the Athabascan villages along Alaska’s Yukon River, where she spent 19 transformative years practicing medicine in some of the most remote conditions imaginable. Armed with determination, resourcefulness, and a deep respect for the communities she served, she learned what it truly means to provide care where it matters most.
Those experiences inspired her debut memoir, Medicine at 50 Below, which chronicles her adventures, challenges, and the profound lessons she learned about medicine, humanity, and herself.
Today, Mary Ellen continues to advocate for rural healthcare access and the vital role of nurse practitioners in America’s most underserved regions. Through her writing, speaking engagements, and ongoing work with Wilderness Medical Staffing, she amplifies the voices of communities that are often overlooked — and inspires a new generation of providers to answer the call of meaningful medicine.
