Cullowhee school grows beyond expectations
Landmark Learning based in Jackson County offers 80 courses a year providing wilderness medical training to 2,000 people across all sectors of the outdoor and medical industry.
Many of the courses are held at their campus in Cullowhee and around Western North Carolina, but they also regularly offer training at sites around the Southeast.
Justin Padgett and his wife, Maurie, launched the wilderness instruction company in the late 1990s as a side venture while they were both in grad school.
“When we stared Landmark, she thought it was a hobby,” Padgett said.
Now they have a sprawling outdoor campus, five full-time employees and a contract pool of 35 instructors.
“We even made an agreement when we started that we were only going to grow to where we had 10 people outside of us. We now have 40 people including us,” Padgett said. “We never wanted to pay insurance to anybody or get real like that, but we’re doing that.”
Related Items
A Cullowhee Christmas: The holidays are in full swing at WCU
WCU student art showcase
Up Moses Creek: A Head of Streaming Hair
Handmade Holiday Sale
It takes one entire staff person just to be in charge of gear. They make sure all the equipment is clean and functioning before heading out into the field, and that the right gear gets to the right place at the right time for each course. The program coordinator does everything from scheduling venues for the courses to purchasing plane tickets for the instructors.
Landmark prides itself on the expertise of its instructors.
“Folks teaching wilderness medicine with us are active in the rescue community. They work for fire departments, they work for EMS, or they work in hospital settings. Some of our staff are surgical assistants,” Padgett said. “Our instructors are professionals and dedicated to doing this. This is their living.”
Padgett is a senior paramedic and ambulance driver for WestCare hospital in addition to his work with Landmark.
Landmark is affiliated with NOLS, the National Outdoor Leadership School. It is the largest NOLS affiliate nationally and the only affiliate in the Eastern U.S. Those who graduate from Landmark have certification bearing the name of NOLS Wilderness Medical Institute.
Landmark has a host of other affiliations and credentials as well.
• N.C. Office of Emergency Medical Services for EMT courses.
• American Canoe Association for swift water rescue and courses for whitewater instructors.
• American Heart Association for First Aid and CPR courses.
• Starfish Aquatics Institute for Lifeguard and Wilderness Lifeguard courses.
• American Mountain Guides Association for Climbing Instructor courses.
www.landmarklearning.org or 828.293.5384.
