hilary thomas

Hilary Thomas founded The WilderNurse in 2025, although she began her nursing journey nearly 30 years earlier with a traditional BSN degree and holistic nurse certification. Her first job was in a rural clinic in Malawi, Africa in 1996, the same summer she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Both nursing and nature brought her joy and belonging, and if there was a way to keep them together, she found it.

Time and time again, she kept her nursing career true to her free spirit and to the spirit of nursing. She actively engaged in the natural world while serving her communities as a registered nurse in a variety of environments- from rural hospitals in Africa and the Appalachains, to remote clinics, wilderness schools, summer camps, eating disorder treatment centers, rehab programs and most recently, private homes as a certified nurse coach in the Pacific Northwest.

Hilary has certificates in herbalism, holistic stress management, and forest bathing, as well as decades of adventurous and transformative experiences that include river guiding, living abroad, log cabin building, and yoga, inner consciousness work and meditation.

Hilary became a whole-being nurse coach in 2018 through the Wisdom of the Whole Coaching Academy and incorporated the foundational structures of consciousness model into her remote and private duty coaching and nursing work. She is passionate about her lifetime commitment to growth and nurturing: during her wilderness retreat offerings, her mission is to empower nurses and other healthcare servants to explore, restore, and reconnect to their true inner and greater nature and to find their unique paths as healers in the wilds of all environments.