Gregg Korbon enlisted in the army after high school and served as an artillery officer during the Vietnam era. He then attended Duke University and Duke University School of Medicine, specializing in anesthesiology and pain management. Dr. Korbon taught at Duke and the University of Virginia medical schools, entered private practice, and now directs an outpatient surgery center. He has authored books and research articles and developed new techniques that are widely used in his field.
Dr. Korbon has also had a long-standing interest in outdoor education and is a senior facilitator at the University of Virginia’s Poplar Ridge challenge course. While an undergraduate at Duke, he created a weeklong adventure course for incoming freshmen, now called Project W.I.L.D. (Wilderness Initiative Learning at Duke), which became a model for many university outdoor programs. He holds a black belt in tae kwon do, a brown belt in judo, and has logged over forty thousand miles as a bicycle commuter. Dr. Korbon has known challenge and pain, but it was only through the death of his son that he found their common source.