Keith Van Meter, MD completed his undergraduate education at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio in 1968 with a degree in chemistry and English. He graduated from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1973 with a degree in medicine. He trained at Tulane University School of Medicine/Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is currently board certified in Emergency Medicine with subspecialty board certification in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine and in Medical Toxicology.

From 1989 to the present, Dr. Van Meter has served as the Chief of the Section of Emergency Medicine in the Department of Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the Medical Director of a 140-physician Emergency Medicine group in south Louisiana and Mississippi (Keith Van Meter & Associates). He acted as the Medical Director of the Jo Ellen Smith Medical Center Multiplace Hyperbaric Medicine Unit from 1978 until the hospital closed in 1998. He has served as the Medical Director of the Baromedical Research Institute Hyperbaric Laboratory in New Orleans, Louisiana since 1980.

Dr. Van Meter served on a task force under Dr. Sam Poole and Dr. Norman McSwain to develop medical support planning for NASA for astronauts aboard a space station from 2000-2002. In his private practice, he has treated over 600 hundred commercial divers in the Gulf of Mexico who suffered from acute decompression sickness or arterial gas embolism. Dr. Van Meter’s primary research interest is the application of hyperbaric oxygen in the ACLS, PALS and ATLS in cardiopulmonary arrest utilizing a swine model.

Dr. Van Meter’s professional assignments and organizations include the following:

• Member of the advisory editorial board for Wounds journal – 1990-present
• Member, UHMS Hyperbaric Oxygen Committee – 1983-present
• Board Member, NBDHMT – 1991-present
• Member-at-Large, Executive Committee of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (two terms)
• Affiliate/Regional faculty for the American Heart Association for 25 years
• Current Instructor, Advanced Cardiac Life Support
• Current Instructor, Pediatric Life Support
• Current Instructor, Advanced Trauma Life Support
• Student, Shell Bergan/Aberdeen diving physician course – 1978
• Student, UHMS/NOAA Diving Physician Course – 1979

Dr. Van Meter’s recent publications and abstracts include the following:

• “Use of high-dose hyperbaric oxygen in a controlled, randomized animal trial to resuscitate swine after a prolonged cardiopulmonary arrest.”: Presented at 1998 ACEP Annual Research Forum. Winner of Best Paper.
• K Van Mater. Carbon monoxide poisoning. In: Emergency Medicine. Eds. Tintinalli, et al. 6th edition. McGraw Hill: New York, 2003, pp 1238-1242.
• DM Barratt, PG Harch, K Van Meter. Decompression illness in divers: a review of the literature. The Neurologist 2002;8:186-202.
• K Van Meter, LD Weiss, PG Harch. HBO in Emergency Medicine. In: Textbook of Hyperbaric Medicine. Eds. KK Jain et al. 4th edition. Hogrefe and Huber: New York 2004, pp 421-449.
• L Garcia-Covarrubias, NE McSwain, K Van Meter, RM Bell. Adjuvant hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the management of crush injury and traumatic ischemia: an evidence-based approach. American Surgeon 2005;71:144-151.
• K Van Meter. A systematic review of the application of hyperbaric oxygen in the treatment of severe anemia: an evidence-based approach. UHM 2005;12(1):61-83.
• K Van Meter, J Vazquez, J Serio, C Ross, C Fife. Emergency verification by “n=2” of the N.O. Way Out empiric decompression table rules for recovery of deep air surface supplied divers with unintended prolonged bottom times (abstract #40). Presented at the UHMS Annual Scientific Symposium, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2005.

Dr. Barry holds a doctoral and master’s degree in Safety Sciences from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Management from American Intercontinental University. He joined Healogics, LLC. (f/k/a Diversified Clinical Services) in 1999 after completing eight years as a US Navy Diver. In his current role, he oversees hyperbaric safety, training, and maintenance for greater than 600 locations and a team of regional safety directors.

In addition to his role as Vice President of Hyperbaric Services for Healogics, he serves as a committee member for NFPA 53-Recommended Practice on Materials, Equipment, and Systems Used in Oxygen-Enriched Atmosphere, UHMS Material Testing Advisory Committee, ASTM International – G04 on Compatibility and Sensitivity of Materials in Oxygen-Enriched Atmospheres, the UHMS Safety Committee, and the National Board of Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Technology.

Before his current role, Dr. Barry served as Hyperbaric Services Manager at the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. Before that, he served in the US Navy as a First Class Deep Sea Diver, Hyperbaric Supervisor, and Training Coordinator.

Greg brings a wealth of emergency medicine and diving experience to the Board. He holds several degrees from various universities. His background includes service in the U.S. Army & Army National Guard, diving instructor, EMT-I in EMS, and CHT safety director at several hospital facilities.

For over three decades he has been instructing in scuba diving, involved in public safety diving, and scientific research with various companies. A few of his certifications include MSDT – Master Scuba Diver Trainer from PADI, former CHT, and EMS/ACLS/PALS Instructor.

He had been employed in emergency medicine working a 911 ambulance for over eight years. His medical experience started in the Army, in 1993, as a first responder in the “field” during training and numerous oversea deployments. His hyperbaric experience includes both monoplace and multiplace hyperbaric chambers. He is also a co-author of a published scientific paper about infectious disease on bacteria & viruses in hyperbaric chambers.

Greg currently serves as the Director of Hyperbaric, Wound Care, & Plastic Surgery and Laser Center at (ROH) Regional One Health in Memphis, TN. He has been a Surveyor for the UHMS since 2013. He is also an avid aviation pilot & builder, taking his wife and daughter on many exciting adventures.

After service as an Aviation Survivalman, search and rescue air crewman and helicopter rescue swimmer in the U.S. Coast Guard for much of the 1980’s, Jay spent six years as an Oceanfront Lifeguard for the City of San Diego. In 1995 he began a career in Hyperbaric Medicine at UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest. In 1996, Jay was certified by the NBDHMT as a hyperbaric technologist, and he also holds PALS and ACLS certifications. Over the ensuing three decades, he has accumulated extensive multiplace chamber operations and management experience. His job responsibilities have included Program Director, Safety Director, Regional Director, VP of Clinical Operations and Nursing Manager. Jay received his nursing degree in 2013. He is a long-standing Associate member of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and has served on the Associate Council as the RN representative. He also serves as a member of the National Fire Protection Association as principle member of the hypo and Hyperbaric Safety Committee.  He owns his own Class “C” hyperbaric chamber and donates its use for small animal veterinary care in the San Diego, CA area. His UHMS Annual Scientific Meeting presentations have addressed safety of inside attendants, hyperbaric patient safety and recreational diver safety. Jay is a co-author of six peer reviewed scientific publications.

Debra first began working in the wound care and hyperbaric industry in 1993. She is the Wound Care and Hyperbaric Director for Wellstar North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, GA. An avid scuba diver, her interest in hyperbaric nursing began early in her career. She has served in many positions in the field of hyperbaric medicine which include management, marketing, teaching, and clinical roles. She is also an advocate of hyperbaric nursing and has promoted the hyperbaric industry by presenting at many national conferences over the years. She spent 16 years in a hospital-based multi-place emergent center caring for injured divers and critical patients. As educator, her role included speaking at area scuba clubs about prevention of decompression illness. During this tenure she was fortunate to work alongside military trained hyperbaric technicians who taught her both multi-place and mono-place hyperbaric maintenance and repair.

In addition to her role as Program Director she also serves as a UHMS accreditation surveyor

Certifications include:-

• Advanced Certified Hyperbaric Registered Nurse
• Certified Hyperbaric Technologist

Current memberships include:

• Baromedical Nurses Association
• Sigma Theta Tau International
• UHMS associate member serving as secretary/treasurer of the Gulf Coast Chapter.

Pete brings enormous offshore commercial diving depth of knowledge and experience to the Board.

For almost four decades, he has been literally and figuratively immersed in the continuum of diving operations, management, health and safety. Following service in the U.S. Navy he underwent commercial diving training at Seattle-based Divers Institute of Technology, in 1979. Over the ensuing years, he has achieved almost every conceivable skills training and certification (57 at last count). Even the scope of these achievements are too lengthy to mention here, let alone all of the specifics.

Aside from his work in the Gulf of Mexico, he has been employed extensively in international waters, including stints in Central and South America, West Africa, the Mediterranean, Middle East, South East Asia, China and India. That’s enough travel to fill several passports with entry and exit stamps and visas.

Pete currently serves as Health, Safety, Environment and Compliance Manager for Aqueos Corporation. This is a company providing various subsea services in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Pacific Coast.

Dr. Sean Hardy completed his undergraduate education at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received a bachelor’s of arts degree in biology. He received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas. Internship and residency training followed, at Louisiana State University Hospital/Charity Hospital’s emergency medicine program. Upon graduation from residency Dr. Hardy underwent fellowship training in undersea and hyperbaric medicine, also at LSU. Additional certifications followed completion of the NOAA diving medical officer and UHMS diver medical examiner courses, FEMA incident command systems training and the Department of Homeland Security Basic and Advanced SWAT courses.

Dr. Hardy serves as a clinical instructor of medicine and the Associate Director of the Emergency Department at LSU Health Science Center. He is an attending physician within the LSU wound care and hyperbaric medicine clinic and takes hyperbaric medicine call in one of the increasingly diminishing 24/7 programs in the U.S. Dr. Hardy sits on several university medical school committees. Among related academic and professional appointments, he is a member of the American Association of Diving Contractors Committee on Evacuation of Injured Divers, he is the LSU Diver Medic Technician assistant course director and instructor, is medical director of the New Orleans Police Emergency Response Medical Team and is a member of the NBDHMT DMT update course faculty and author of the Invasive Skills Chapter in the third edition of ‘Daugherty’s Field Guide for the Diver Medic’.

Gary Montgomery joined the US Navy in 1998, serving as an active-duty Hospital Corpsman for 9 years.  He completed multiple deployments with the 2^nd Marine Airwing, 2^nd Force Reconnaissance, and the Defense Medical Readiness Institute (DMRTI).  He assisted in developing multiple courses, including the Emergency Preparedness Response Course.  He was introduced to undersea and hyperbaric medicine during his time with the US Marine Corps.  He completed his physician assistant education at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, where he earned his Master of Physician Assistant Studies. Upon graduation from his PA program, LCDR Montgomery joined the US Public Health Service. His first duty assignment was with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Bastrop, Texas. He was later deployed to Liberia where he served as an Ebola Fighter/Medical Provider with the Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU) Team 2, treating Ebola Virus and Malaria patients.  His next duty station was with the NOAA Diving Center as the Diving Medical Officer. He has completed the following courses and certifications:  USN Recognition and Treatment of Diving Casualties course at NDSTC, Panama City, Fl, NOAA/UHMS Physician Training in Diving Medicine Course, NOAA Diving Training, Interspace Systems Closed Circuit Rebreather training for the Meg 15, multiple DAN courses, USN Instructor School, USN Master Training Specialist, NOAA Small Boat Operator, and multiple FEMA courses.  He is currently enrolled in the UHMS PATH Program.

LCDR Montgomery currently serves as the Director of NOAA Diving Medicine.  His roles include oversight of all diving medicine courses within the NOAA Diving Center course catalog, such as NOAA DMT, Joint Hyperbaric Medical Officer, Technician Course (owned and operated by the US Army), Advanced 1^st Aid for NOAA Divers; O2 Administration for the Diving Casualty; medical lectures for the NOAA Diving Course; NOAA Chamber Operator and Supervisor Course. He provides medical support at the dive site and via the NOAA Divining Emergency Hotline. He is solely responsible for the readiness of all NOAA divers.  He is the Chair of the NOAA Diving Medical Review Board and a non-voting member of the NOAA Diving Control and Safety Board.     

Jeff started his diving career at age 10, performing swimming pool maintenance on SCUBA. He went on to study music/guitar at The Musicians Institute with the “Wrecking Crew”. After some years spent performing music in Sydney and San Francisco he moved to Hawaii to “get back in the water”. In the late 90’s he became involved in technical diving and diving instruction and worked as The Dive Master/DSO for The Nature Conservancy on Palmyra Atoll from 2001-2010.

Jeff also worked as Safety Diver/DSO on films by Newline Cinema, Discovery Channel, and acted as Dive Master/Medic on the research vessel M/V Searcher during expeditions to Palmyra, Kingman Reef, and Johnston Atoll with National Geographic, BBC, Scripps, and CH2M Hill. He has also worked as an Expert Witness on diving fatality cases.

Jeff is a NOAA trained MPIC, a nationally registered EMT, a DMT and a CHT. Since 2008 he has been employed at the University of Hawaii Hyperbaric Treatment Center. Here, he operates their multiplace chamber system, participates in its maintenance. In his role as Senior Care Provider, he has trained all new inside attendants over the last 10 years.

He played a key role acquiring the critical care equipment for the facility as well as maintaining it, and was the liaison between the UH HTC and the Respiratory Technician Instructors at Kapiolani Community College to create the training program for the qualified staff to run the hyperbaric ventilators.

Valerie Short began as Registered Nurse in 1980 in the Operating Room, first as a staff nurse and then as Director of Surgical Services for 17 years. This position brought with it the responsibility and experience of undergoing frequent regulatory and licensure surveys, for departments where a great deal of focus from every survey team member was spent. Additionally, it provided her with a great deal of experience in Medical Malpractice litigation, as well as financial responsibility for the largest budgets and revenue within a for-profit hospital setting. The experience of leading very strong, but diverse personalities, from technicians to physicians, in an environment where changes of a critical nature occurred quickly and constantly every day, has continued to prove invaluable throughout her career. It has also afforded her the ability to handle and approach problems calmly and in the best interest of everyone involved.

While serving as the Director of Surgical Services, she was called upon to help market the facilities new Wound Care & Hyperbaric Center to the physicians and community. It was during this time that she discovered a specialty in hyperbaric medicine and wound care nursing, for which she felt as much passion for as she did the field of surgical nursing.

She began working full time as a staff hyperbaric nurse in 1996. Subsequent to that, she has served many roles within hyperbaric centers which have included Program Director, Regional Program Director, Regional Vice-President of Operations, Vice-President of Clinical Services and currently she serves as the Vice-President of Operations, Clinical Services, and Reimbursement Specialist for InterAmerica Wound Centers in San Antonio, Texas.

She assumes many responsibilities in her current role. One of her responsibilities is to see that the Wound Centers staff, and their physicians, complies with Regulatory Standards, both clinical and financial, during the provision of care. She has successfully achieved UHMS Accreditation at many hyperbaric facilities. She speaks regularly to assist with ongoing education to other providers in regard to healthcare compliance with regulations.

Throughout her advancement in the field of wound care and hyperbaric medicine, she has obtained many certifications in her specialty. She currently holds the following certifications:

• Advanced Certified Hyperbaric Registered Nurse
• Certified Wound Care Nurse
• Certified Wound Specialist
• Fellow American College of Certified Wound Specialist
• Certified Medical Billing Specialist

She is a member of several professional organizations, which include:

• Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society
• Baromedical Nurses Association
• Wound, Ostomy, & Continence Nurses Society
• Association of Operating Room Nurses

Bryan Sully is a highly skilled and experienced professional with 25 years of commercial diving experience in both civil and offshore sectors. In 2009, he further enhanced his qualifications as an Emergency Medical Technician and Diving Medical Technician. In 2011, Bryan earned an associate degree in emergency medical technology, specializing as a Paramedic. Recognizing the importance of continuous learning and professional growth, he pursued higher education and obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science in Allied Health from Northwestern State University in 2014 and completing a Master of Science in Construction Management from Louisiana State University in 2023.

Bryan’s commitment to saving lives and providing exceptional medical care is evident as a faculty member at Operation Life Saver Training Center instructing EMS, BLS, PALS, and ACLS. He not only possesses the skills to respond to emergencies but also train and educate others in life-saving techniques. Currently, Bryan serves the diving community as a Project Coordinator and Lead Medic for the Aqueos Corporation, where he utilizes his extensive experience and medical expertise to ensure the safety and well-being of the team.