About
Why Cornerstone Safety Group?
Cornerstone brings risk management, medical, and mental health expertise together through an accessible membership model. We act as an extension of your team, getting to know your people, operations, and priorities to help you prepare, respond, and lead with confidence.
Through practical guidance, staff training, document reviews, and resources, we help strengthen your safety systems. When challenges arise, we support your team with coordinated expertise - always keeping people at the center.
Membership also connects you with a trusted community of peers, sharing lessons and perspectives from across travel and experiential education.
Our 97% annual member retention rate reflects the lasting value of our support and relationships.
Don’t go it alone. Join Cornerstone Safety Group.
Our Story
Cornerstone began with a simple idea: leaders benefit from a trusted community where they can share challenges, learn from one another, and find support.
In 2017, while leading global risk management for a travel company, Dave Dennis began facilitating monthly calls with risk management professionals across the industry. What started as a small group grew to more than 100 participants representing dozens of organizations. Together, they worked through common challenges and shared lessons from varied experiences. These conversations created momentum that would eventually lead to something bigger.
As guest speakers, physicians, mental health professionals, and other specialists joined the discussions, a common need emerged. Travel and experiential education organizations needed specialized support, but finding and sustaining that support was often costly and difficult. From that shared need, the idea for Cornerstone was born: a community built on trust, shared learning, and the belief that expert guidance should be within reach of every organization, regardless of size.
Dave brought that idea to life through Cornerstone Safety Group’s shared membership model, bringing risk management, medical, and mental health professionals together as one advisory team. Members gained ongoing access to trusted guidance, practical resources, and a community of peers to support them through everyday decisions and complex challenges.
Some of our most meaningful work has taken place during organizations’ most difficult moments. We have supported leaders through serious incidents, including fatalities. In those moments, our guidance extends beyond response plans and procedures to the people affected: grieving families, fellow participants, staff, and the leaders carrying the weight of the response. We help organizations respond with empathy, build trust through honest and consistent engagement, and keep human needs at the center of their decisions.
At the heart of our work is the same belief that inspired those first conversations: leaders should never have to navigate complex challenges alone. We stand alongside them, helping weave safety, wellbeing, and integrity into every experience.
Our Team
Leadership Team
Dave Dennis, MSBC
Executive Director
Margaret is the Risk Management Director with Cornerstone Safety Group. Prior to this role, she was most recently the Executive Director for Talisman Camps, a program serving neurodivergent participants. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Experiential Education along with being a member of their Accreditation Council. She formerly held the positions of Director of Operations and Director of Risk Management and Compliance at Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness (2021-2024), Health Director at Open Sky Wilderness Therapy (2017-2021), and Program Director, Case Manager, Staff Mentor, and Head Guide at Alaska Crossings (2010-2016) and has worked with commercial rafting, canoeing, and kayaking companies. She is formerly the Best Practices Committee Chair on the Outdoor Behavioral Health Council Board.
Margaret has enjoyed traveling and exploring the world and has also had incredible opportunities to live in Minnesota, Alaska, Colorado, and now is based in Asheville, North Carolina with her husband, two beautiful children, and dogs.
Margaret Kelso
Risk Management Director
Dr. Dubansky is co-founder and Medical Director of Cornerstone Safety Group. He is a Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician with special expertise in Wilderness Medicine. Dr. Dubansky is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and serves as Medical Director for the Northstar California ski clinic, three national forests and several outdoor adventure companies.
Dr. Dubansky received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2010, then trained in Emergency Medicine at UCSF-Fresno where he created and completed an area of concentration in Wilderness Medicine Education in 2014. Dr. Dubansky’s experience includes designing and implementing EMS field scenarios and mass casualty drills, lecturing extensively to medical students, EMTs, nurses, physicians, and National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service Rangers. He has also developed National Park Service EMS protocols as part of UCSF-Fresno’s ParkMedic and Wilderness Medicine Programs.
Dr. Dubansky is also a co-founder of Tahoe Wilderness Medicine, where he still leads outdoor adventure trips. He has taught for or helped run numerous outdoor programs, including NOLS, Cal Adventures at U.C. Berkeley, Cornell University Outdoor Education, California Canoe and Kayak, ARTA River Trips and Healing Waters San Francisco. Dr. Dubansky volunteers as a National Ski Patrol physician and is a diplomate of the Wilderness Medical Society’s Diploma in Mountain Medicine program.
Joshua Dubansky, MD, FACEP
Medical Director
Teresa Jennings, LCSW, LAC, is Mental Health & Community Wellness Director with Cornerstone Safety Group, drawing on experience spanning outdoor education, clinical social work, and public education. She began her career as a river guide and expedition leader, leading whitewater rafting, climbing, and multi-day wilderness trips.
Over the past decade, Teresa has worked as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, educator, administrator, and nonprofit leader, training staff, supporting youth-serving organizations, and helping teams navigate complex situations with confidence and compassion.
Her global experiences - from teaching in South Korea to completing cycling tours across multiple countries - have broadened her perspective and deepened her passion for helping organizations create safe, supportive, and thriving environments for both staff and participants.
Teresa Jennings, LCSW, LAC
Mental Health & Community Director
Advisor Team
Barret Fabris, is an educator and diversity, equity, and inclusion leader with two decades of experience in schools, universities, and international organizations. He earned his PhD in International Peace Studies from Trinity College Dublin and holds advanced training in conflict resolution, restorative justice, global education, and human rights. Barret joins Cornerstone with twenty years of experience designing curriculum, leading organizational change, and facilitating dialogue across diverse communities worldwide. He has served as Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the K–12 level, taught global education and peace studies at Drexel University and Trinity College Dublin, and developed training programs for educators and organizational leaders. Barret believes in creating inclusive environments that foster connection, resilience, and belonging in both domestic and international settings.
Barret Fabris, PhD
Conflict Resolution Advisor
Josh Kelso brings nearly two decades of working with youth and adults in both schools and outdoor settings. Josh received his Masters degree in counseling from Adams State University in 2018 and has since become clinically licensed and gained additional training in addiction and emotionally focused therapies. He's worked in acute residential, wilderness therapy, and school based therapy settings. Prior to working as a therapist he was a raft guide and continues to enjoy spending time outside with his family in Western North Carolina.
Josh Kelso, LCMHS, LCAS Mental Health Advisor
Dr. Croghan is a Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician with a fellowship in Sports Medicine. She is a Community Faculty member with her alma mater, the University of Nevada School of Medicine and received her Medical Degree from the University ofNevada before her residency in Emergency Medicine at Univeristy of Arizona in 2002. She then completed a fellowship in Sports Medicine at San Jose State University, caring for college student athletes at both Stanford and Menlo College as well as the San Jose Sharks and Sabercats. She was an attending at a Level II Trauma Center with a Stroke and Cardiac Unit for 18 years, overseeing and mentoring medical students and residents throughout the years. She has volunteered hundreds of hours at the medical school as a guest lecturer and serves on the application committee for the pre-med, post-Baccalaureate, and BS-MD programs. Dr Croghan, once a foreign exchange student herself, has attended multiple Wilderness Medicine conferences over the years and has spent 5 summers caring for childrens' summer camps in the Sierra Mountains.
Cari Croghan, MD, FACEP
Medical Advisor
Tory Smith, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker based out of Durango, Colorado. Currently, she serves her community as a therapist for adolescents and families impacted by the child welfare and foster care systems. Tory is working on opening her own private practice and is excited to join the Cornerstone team. Tory’s additional mental health experience includes working as a school social worker and in various nonprofits serving marginalized communities. Prior to this, Tory began her career as an outdoor educator in the Four Corners region with programming geared towards backpacking, rafting and cultural exchange. Tory has also led trips internationally as a teacher at the Traveling School and Program Leader for Deer Hill Expeditions in Costa Rica.
Outside of work Tory enjoys traveling, painting, exploring the mountains and desert of the Southwest and getting lost in a good book.
Tory Smith, LCSW
Mental Health Advisor
Michael Habicht, MD, DiMM, FAWM is an emergency physician in South Lake Tahoe, California. He began his outdoor and travel career as a backpacking and rock climbing guide before going to medical school and emergency residency at the University of California, Irvine. Today, he serves as the Medical Director for Heavenly and Kirkwood Professional Ski Patrol, an instructor for the Diploma in Mountain Medicine course for the Wilderness Medical Society and served in El Dorado County Search and Rescue for 10 years. He continues to travel and climb around the world with ascents including Alaska’s Denali, Ama Dablam in the Himalaya, Kilimanjaro, and countless climbs and backpacking trips all across California with his family. He has trained extensively in travel medicine, high altitude medicine, and has a special affinity for traveling with children and teens as a father of two adventurous boys who have hike and climbed across the world with him.
Michael Habicht, MD, FACEP, DiMM
Medical Advisor
Chris Barlow brings deep experience in gap year education, outdoor programming, and experiential learning. His career has centered on the role of healthy, growth-oriented risk in education, leadership development, and personal growth.
Chris has worked across the education spectrum, including teaching in public and independent schools, leading outdoor trips in North and South America, and working as a rock climbing guide. In 2014, he and his wife co-founded HMI Gap, a semester of outdoor adventure and environmental stewardship for young adults through the High Mountain Institute. He now serves as HMI’s Director of Programs, overseeing program delivery, staff development, and risk management.
Chris has been actively involved with the Gap Year Association since 2016, serving on and later co-chairing the Standards & Accreditation Committee, joining the Board of Directors in 2025, and now serving as President of the GYA Board of Directors.
Chris grew up exploring the forests and cliffs of East Tennessee and earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Colorado College. He currently lives in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, with his wife and their two young children.
Chris Barlow, MA
Risk Management Advisor
“Even though we've been in business for over 25 years, we are extremely grateful for Cornerstone's professional advice and expertise. It's very comforting to know that we have folks like Cornerstone who have our company and the people we serve at the forefront of their minds. We have really valued their work as we continually strive to improve our systems and practices.”
Liza, Moondance Adventures