Our Staff

Dr. Diana Barnard

Dr. Diana Barnard grew up on a dairy farm in Waitsfield, Vermont, where she learned many important life lessons including the value of hard work and the importance and wonder of a loving and supportive family. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, and then in 1986 attended the University of Vermont College of Medicine. She completed her Family Practice training at The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and in 1994 happily returned to Vermont to raise a family and officially start her career at Middlebury Family Health. For many years she was actively involved with the Open Door Clinic as a volunteer and board member and she has been on the Palliative Care and Ethics committees at Porter Hospital since the mid 1990s. After spending 15 years in a traditional family practice setting, she preferred to practice “old fashioned” medicine which had been her original inspiration for becoming a doctor. This gave her the opportunity to focus on helping patients and their extended families when facing the unique challenges of life-limiting illness. Dr. Barnard currently serves on the board of directors of Porter Medical Center and Hospice Volunteer Services and recently assumed the medical directorship of Helen Porter Health Care and Rehabilitation Center. She has felt honored and inspired by visiting people in their homes and having open and honest discussions about the difficult but important choices that need to be made in emotionally trying times. By keeping the focus on quality of life, she hopes to provide guidance, comfort and hope to those in a critical time of need.

Dr.Will Porter

Dr.Will Porter graduated from Middlebury College in 1984 with B.A. in English Literature. Several years later he undertook a year-long premedical program at Bryn Mawr College and then attended medical school at Brown University, graduating in 1992. Dr Porter completed residency training in Family Practice at Contra Costa County Hospital in Martinez, California, in 1995. After one and a half years as the physician on Block Island, Rhode Island, he worked for an emergency room staffing company in rural emergency rooms throughout Northern California. Realizing that this was a futile search for a Vermont-like location on the west coast, in 1999 he returned to the place where he really wanted to live –Vermont. After serving as a staff Emergency Room physician at Porter Hospital for five years, Dr. Porter joined Middlebury Family Health and practiced primary care family medicine while also serving as president of the board of directors of Hospice Volunteer Services of Addison County. In 2009 he felt the pull of palliative and end-of-life care and decided to embark on this new venture of Partners in Palliative and Home Care with Diana Barnard and Leslie Orelup. Dr. Porter lives in Shoreham with his wife and two young daughters.

Leslie Orelup, Family Nurse Practitioner

Leslie Orelup, Family Nurse Practitioner, has come full circle to be working at Helen Porter Nursing Home again. After a stint at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, she returned to Vermont in 1975 and started working at Porter Medical Center - first at the Nursing Home, then in the Intensive Care Unit, as a nurse and as a supervisor. This was followed by 20 years of working in the Emergency Department. She became interested in expanding her role and returned to school, obtaining a BSN in 1993 from Plattsburgh State University and an MSN as a Family Nurse Practitioner from UVM in 1998. For the next 10 years she practiced primary care medicine at Middlebury Family Health. Her career as a nurse has been evolving - with a combination of life experiences and an interest in elder care she has focused on a holistic approach which preserves and promotes dignity, respect, and sensitivity. Since 2008 she has worked at Helen Porter Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in a collaborative relationship with physicians to provide care to both long-term residents and short-term rehabilitation patients.

Susan Cartwright
Susan Cartwright is the Office Manager for Partners in Palliative and Home Care. Prior to joining the practice she was in Healthcare IT at GE Healthcare, a medical software company in Burlington. During her 18 year tenure she worked in several different capacities including customer support, management, training and implementations, software testing and design. Susan is currently enrolled in the University of Massachusetts Gerontology Certificate program. Susan lives in Ferrisburgh with her husband and their chocolate lab.