Learn more about our Instructors and their backgrounds
Erik Kulick, JD.WEMT.FAWM
Founder & Chief Instructor
Since founding True North almost 15 years ago, Erik Kulick remains dedicated to providing exceptional outdoor skills training to clients from all around the country.
With his passion for teaching and 35+ years of experience, Erik has built a reputation not just for his technical knowledge but for his energy and patience in instructing individuals of all levels. Some are preparing for their first camping trip, while others are seasoned outdoors folks, including many professional responders. He has taught for regional and national outdoor programs, like Venture Outdoors, YMCA Bold & Gold, and the L.L. Bean Outdoor Discovery School. He works with military personnel from the various service branches, most of whom are in a SOF pipeline or serve in a special mission unit.
His professional background includes extensive experience in emergency services, beginning as an EMS provider. He is a Wilderness EMT, a Pennsylvania certified EMS Instructor, an instructor for the American Heart Association, and has taught at the Center for Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the Wilderness Medical Society, where he is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine (FAWM). He now serves in law enforcement.
Erik also holds a law degree and MBA. He collaborates with organizations to train their members in team building, communication, and risk assessment. Prior clients include VFIS, the Boy Scouts of America, Carnegie Mellon University, UPMC, and the Association of Consulting Foresters.
He has been featured in various national and foreign media outlets, including Backpacker, CNN, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, KDKA, Men’s Health, National Public Radio partner, WITF, as well as Australia’s News Corp and Britain’s The Guardian.
In his spare time, Erik much of it relaxing with his wife and their dogs at Cape Henry, Virginia so they can kayak alongside the dolphins.
J.C. McGreehan, BS.NRP.WEMT
Senior Instructor
An avid outdoor enthusiast, J.C. McGreehan brings his extensive recreational, military, and medical experience together to provide his students, no matter their skill level, a well founded and truly unique instructional experience.
J.C. brings much wilderness survival and medicine expertise, garnered at home and overseas, to the table. He is a practicing National Registry Paramedic and a certified Wilderness EMT. J.C. is a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who completed his survival, evasion, resistance, and escape training at the U.S. Army SERE School. J.C. has deployed to some of the most devastated areas of the world, including Haiti and Afghanistan. In 2013, as a team leader for Team Rubicon, J.C. led a group of medical and rescue professionals to the Philippines in less than 72 hours after Typhoon Haiyan, one the most devastating tropical cyclones ever recorded, made landfall to help the nation’s survivors who were in dire need of clean drinking water, shelter, and critical health services.
On the recreational side, J.C. enjoys mountain biking, hiking, outdoor photography, primitive camping, sailing, SCUBA, not to mention the occasional adventure race, all of which have taken him around the US and abroad, as he continues his search for the next great experience.
J.C. initially joined the True North team as a student almost fifteen years ago when he took our Advanced Wilderness Survival course to hone and refresh his skills. Shortly afterwards, he began to consult for True North, then later started teaching its clients. He has represented True North in the national media, including Fox News.
J.C.’s teaching philosophy is to create a comfortable learning atmosphere for our clients that first instills confidence, thus allowing them to effectively acquire tangible and useful skill sets that are applicable, not just to survival situations, but to many aspects of life too.
Lisa Anantarow
Youth Education Instructor
With a love for the outdoors and adventure, Lisa Anantarow provides any added dimension to our mission at True North.
Lisa has diverse career focused on service, education, and leadership. She has more than 25 years experience as a teacher in Pittsburgh Public Schools working with children of all ages and backgrounds. She also served as an Officer in the U.S. Army, where she was deployed to Iraq.
Lisa believes that everyone should have access to all of the benefits and opportunities that the Great Outdoors has to offer, no matter one’s background and circumstance. While she is always up for a day on the trail or the river, Lisa especially loves urban exploration where she can investigate abandoned structures and long forgotten places.