Our Instructors

Damien Santer

Paramedic

Damien is the Curriculum Director at Austere & Emergency Medicine International (AEMED), overseeing the development of educational programs across domains including medicine, paramedicine, first aid, disaster management, and the social sciences. With over 20 years of experience, Damien is a seasoned expert in wilderness and austere medicine, disaster management, and leadership. He has contributed significantly to the creation of most of AEMED's current courses and is dedicated to ensuring that the education provided is culturally relevant and economically accessible worldwide. Damien holds a Diploma in Paramedical Science and is a Critical Care Austere Medic. He holds a professional certificate in Public Safety and was a NSW State Rescue Board Accredited Operator. Damien also holds also a Certified IV in Assessment & Workplace Training, reflecting his commitment to quality education and training. In addition to his medical and rescue qualifications, Damien has extensive outdoor experience, including hiking, camping, abseiling, climbing, canyoning, caving, canoeing, kayaking, and white water rafting. He is also an experienced powerboat operator. Damien's outdoor skills complement his expertise in austere and wilderness medicine, making him a well-rounded professional in emergency and remote environments. Damien has a strong commitment to volunteer work, having served with the NSW Volunteer Rescue Association, the NSW State Emergency Service, The Scout Association (UK), and 4x4 Relief Malaysia. His volunteer experience has given him valuable hands-on experience in emergency response and community service, further enhancing his capabilities as an educator and consultant in emergency and disaster preparedness.

Phil Austen-Smith

Austere Medic

Phil is an experienced, intuitive and emotionally well-developed professional individual with strong leadership qualities. Three decades (plus) of work experience largely focused around people, problem solving, logistics, challenging situations and scenarios, including but not limited to, UK based Policing International expeditions, open water dive instruction and more recently UK based emergency Ambulance medical professional, (current).

Lee Caulfield-Marsh

Senior Advance Care Paramedic (ACP2)

Senior Advance Care Paramedic (ACP2) AHPRA Registered (Australia) and IHCD Paramedic HCPC (UK) Dip. Paramedicine with the Institute of Healthcare Development (IHCD UK) Grad Cert. Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments (UTas)

Lee has spent over 20 years as a frontline Paramedic in both the UK and Australia in roles ranging from IHCD Paramedic, Solo Rapid Response Paramedic, HEMS Aircrew Paramedic with Essex Air Ambulance, Major and Multiple Causality Incidents Trainer, and CBRNe Decontamination Team Leader and Instructor in the UK, before emigrating to Australia in 2010 working as an ACP2 Paramedic for metro and regional crews in Queensland, and as a Solo Responder Paramedic working in rural, remote and isolated areas of Queensland, including K’Gari (Fraser Island), often dealing with complex trauma and medical conditions in a resource poor austere environment, whilst having to navigate challenging terrain, beach access and weather conditions, and working with air and sea operations and retrieval. He has also been a member of the Special Response Team and was deployed on disaster mitigation to Rockhampton in 2017 for TC Debbie. For his role in this he was awarded the National Medal with TC Debbie bar.

With a keen interest in the outdoors, and in expedition and wilderness medicine and training, Lee has been able to combine his passions by studying these disciplines further, including recently completing a Grad Cert in Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments, and certifying in Advanced Wilderness Life Support, and Advanced Hazmat Life Support Instruction. He has also performed humanitarian work as a Medic in Nepal post-earthquake recovery, and as a Medic for a team dealing with eco conservation in Malaysia, and has given guest talks to several organisations on topics such as Survival, Wilderness and Disaster Medicine, and Tropical Jungle Field Medicine.

Before his journey to paramedicine, Lee spent some time in the British Military, then later working as a freelance photographer for some press photo agencies, and as a college technician and lecturer teaching photography and media skills.

Allan Fiddler

Austere First Responder + W

Darlene Ongkili

Emergency Physician

Rishaini Elengovan

MD

Sia Shun Yi

Paramedic

An experience medic and instructor, Sia is qualified as an Assistant Medical Officer and Pre-Hospotal Advanved Care Responder.

Shaliza Manmohan

MD

Dr Shaliza Manmohan is a graduate with 3 degrees- Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Bachelor of HealthScience(Hons) and Doctor of Medicine, MD from both an international (University of Adelaide, Australia) and local (Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine in collaboration with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine) institute.

Her passion of learning science and medicine stems her interest in education. Having trained in Emergency Medicine in Borneo Malaysia, especially during the pandemic, she realized the low awareness of pre-hospital care amongst the community, especially in emergency situations. She aims and hope to improve the quality and create more awareness to prevent life threatening situations.

She believes that being a doctor isn’t just about saving lives, it’s also about educating- of which improves the lives of others.

Ben Swindlehurst

Military & Tactical Lead

Ben Swindlehurst grew up hunting, hiking, and spending most of his time in the wild lands of eastern Oregon and Idaho. After high school, he worked on cattle ranches in the high desert and mountains of southeast Oregon until he was 23.

After a few years in the Army National Guard, he transferred to active duty in 1996. For his 24-year career in the Army, he was a combat medic, gaining a vast amount of experience in austere medicine - from treating injured personnel in wilderness environments to several years treating combat casualties on the ground.

Ben spent a tour as the Team Sergeant for a Forward Surgical Team in Afghanistan as well as the Team Sergeant for an imbedded Combat Advisor Team. He was then selected into the Project Warrior program where he worked as a Capability Developer, developing solutions to enhance survivability on the battlefield.

Francis Canete (Gitz)

Wilderness First Responder

Songmin Kim

Physician's Assistant

Mario Wild

Austere First Responder + W

Alex Lithgow

Austere First Responder + W

Zi Lie Chan

Austere First Responder + W

Chitra Rani Yogarajah

MD

Perjit Kaur Singh

MSN

Sin Yuan Fua

MD

Raja Khairul Azli

Assistant Medical Officer

Julian Christopher Richard

Physiotherapist