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Board of Trustees

The PMC Board of Trustees is made up of community members who are dedicated to helping our medical center achieve high quality compassionate health care services for our community.

Kristofer Anderson, MD, FAAOA

Town of Residence: Addison, VT

Dr. Anderson is a general otolaryngologist who practices at Porter Medical Center’s ear, nose and throat department. He received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and did his otolaryngology residency at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Anderson has done additional fellow training in treatment of allergic disorders and provides allergy skin testing and subcutaneous and sublingual immunotherapy treatments through the Middlebury office. As a general otolaryngologist he also provides treatment for a broad range of ear and hearing disorders, nasal airway and sinus issues, voice and throat concerns and tonsil, adenoid and ear issues in children.

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Judson Bartlett

Town of Residence: Middlebury, VT

Judson is a strategic communications consultant specializing in nonprofit organizations. He has worked extensively with nonprofit leaders and boards throughout his professional career, primarily in the healthcare and education sectors. Judson holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and a master’s of business administration in leadership from Franklin Pierce University. He lives in Middlebury with his wife, Karen, and their two children. Judson has been a trustee since 2014.

Megan Osterhout Brakeley

Town of Residence: Middlebury, VT

Megan Osterhout Brakeley has worked in farming and education for the past 15 years. She currently serves as the food and garden educator of the Knoll, Middlebury College’s student garden and community space. Megan holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and a master of environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry. Megan moonlights as an instructor with the Middlebury Snow Bowl’s Snow School and a volunteer with Unlikely Riders. She also serves on the board of the VT Releaf Collective working to advance racial equity in issues around land, environment, agriculture, and foodways. Megan, her partner Gus, and their two young children live in Middlebury.

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Anne Haynie Collins

Town of Residence: Cornwall, VT

Anne Haynie Collins has degrees in engineering and a professional background in medical research, aerospace and defense. She serves on the boards of the Addison County Parent Child Center, the Early Care and Learning Partnership, and the Porter Auxiliary, and she is on the Cornwall Cemetery Commission. She is also the author of “Vintage Pies.” Anne is married to Brian Collins, DDS, a pediatric dentist with a practice in Middlebury. Anne and Brian live in Cornwall, and have one child, Andy, who recently joined Brian in practice.

Rachael Lee Cummings

Town of Residence: South Burlington, VT

 Rachel is the executive director of the Counseling Service of Addison County (CSAC). She previously served as chief operating officer at AgeWell and was the founder/president of Armistead Caregiver Services. 

Active in governance and healthcare policy, Rachel also serves on the board of directors for Mountain Community Health and is the co-president of the Vermont Care Partners board. She also contributed as a trustee on the UVM Health Network Medical Group’s board (2019-2022).

Rachel holds a master’s in public health from the University of Vermont.


Bill Cunningham

Town of Residence: Middlebury, VT

Bill Cunningham is the regional director of Tri Valley Transit Addison Region overseeing its operations and programs. Prior to joining Tri Valley Transit, Bill helped to start a new mission for the Vermont Air National Guard, developing an Information Operations and Cyber School House. Bill retired after 34 years with the Vermont National Guard as superintendent and chief of the 139 IOS.  
 
Bill spent the first part of his career in manufacturing management. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business management and accounting from Southern New Hampshire University. He has a master of public administration from Norwich University with a concentration in nonprofit management. 
 
Bill has been heavily involved in his community for many years. He is a Rotary and Lions club member and enjoys volunteering with Special Olympics Addison County. He lives in Middlebury with his wife Heidi.

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Matt Curran, Treasurer

Town of Residence: Middlebury, VT

Matt Curran grew up in central Massachusetts, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in business administration from Assumption College. Matt then began his career at Stowe & Degon LLP, a regional public accounting firm in Massachusetts. After six years at Stowe & Degon, he accepted the assistant controller and treasurer position at Small Dog Electronics in Waitsfield, Vermont. Matt is currently the director of business services for Middlebury College, overseeing the auxiliary operations, liability and property insurance, as well as real estate holdings of the institution. 
 
In addition to the Porter Medical Center Board, Matt serves on the board for the United Way of Addison County and serves as the treasurer for the Addison County Economic Development Corporation. Matt resides in Middlebury with his wife, Megan, and two sons, Theodore and Timothy.

Benjamin Deppman

Town of Residence: Cornwall, VT

Benj Deppman is an attorney practicing in Middlebury and represents individuals and business entities. He has been practicing law for 28 years and was raised in Middlebury. Benj is currently co-chair of the Real Estate Law Section for the Vermont Bar Association. He currently serves as president of Porter Auxiliary Board and is past president of the Town Hall Theater Board of Directors. He is also the vice president of the board of Addison County Fair and Field Days, Inc. Benj lives in Cornwall with his wife, Lesley, and children. When not practicing law or volunteering, Benj can be found spending time with family or doing yardwork.

Julia Doucet

Town of Residence: Starksboro, VT

Julia is an outreach nurse/case manager at the Open Door Clinic in Middlebury. She brings over a decade of experience working with Latinx migrant farmworkers in health care and has spearheaded innovative projects to enhance health access. Julia has grown the clinic’s health outreach program to include over 45 farms. She partnered with VT Folklife and others to create the book, “The Most Costly Journey”, an anthology of stories that was chosen as the Vermont Read’s 2022 book.

Julia graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Environmental Science and an RN from Vermont Tech. She is a certified medical interpreter and fluent in Spanish. She has lived and worked in Mexico and Central America.

Sunil “Sunny” Eappen, MD, MBA

Town of Residence: South Burlington, VT

As chief executive officer of the UVM Health Network, Sunny Eappen oversees an integrated rural health network that includes an academic medical center, a children’s hospital, five community hospitals, a multi-specialty medical group, a home health and hospice agency and several skilled nursing facilities. The network serves more than 1 million residents of northern New York and Vermont, employs 15,000 people and has annual operating revenue of $3 billion.  

Dr. Eappen served previously as chief medical officer and senior vice president of medical affairs at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston, where he led key initiatives in physician recruitment and retention, medical affairs, patient care and diversity, equity and inclusion. He also served previously as interim CEO of BWH. Dr. Eappen joined BWH in 2018 from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, where he served as the chief of anesthesiology and the chief medical officer and previously as the medical director of the operating rooms (ORs). In these roles, he managed the medical staff office and the pharmacy, in addition to leading the quality and patient experience programs. 

Sunny earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, his doctorate from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine and a master’s in business administration from the Yale University School of Management. He completed his residency in anesthesiology at BWH.  

Dr. Eappen is the author of numerous published articles and a national speaker on topics including optimizing OR efficiency, surgical checklist implementation and change management. He also was an Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. He serves on the boards of the Matty Eappen Foundation, Controlled Risk Insurance Company Patient Safety Organization of Harvard Medical School and New England Donor Services/New England Organ Bank. 

Kim Farnham

Chair

Town of Residence: New Haven, VT

Originally from Centerville, Massachusetts, Kim Farnham first came to Vermont to attend Castleton University. She fell in love with Vermont, which she saw as a reflection of the wonderful, kind and hardworking people that live here. After several years of working as an educator in Massachusetts, Kim moved back to Vermont with her husband Eric in 1991. Inspired by her late father’s involvement with many local organizations, she has always been passionate about advocating for her community. 
 
Kim became a member of the Bristol Elementary School Board when her two children began attending school. Following their progression through high school, Kim was elected to the Mt. Abraham Union High School Board. This opportunity led Kim to represent Mt. Abraham Union High School on the Hannaford Career Center Board. She continues to serve on this board as a community-at-large member. After beating breast cancer in 2016, Kim felt strongly about helping other patients navigate the emotional treatment process so she became a patient/family advisor for the UVM and Porter Medical Centers. Kim has lived in New Haven, Vermont for the last 16 years with her husband and three dogs, Jules, Scarlet and Janie.

Alicia Grangent

Town of Residence: Vergennes, VT

Alicia Grangent is the chief executive officer for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Vergennes. She is an experienced program director with over 20 years of experience working with vulnerable populations to include at-risk youth, disabilities and mental health. Alicia has a bachelor’s degree in social work from MacMurray College and a master’s degree in criminal and social justice from Lewis University. Alicia resides in Vergennes with her dog Leia.

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Nick Lovejoy

Secretary

Town of Residence: Weybridge, VT

Nick Lovejoy is the director of analytics at Unite Us, an outcome-focused technology company that builds coordinated care networks of health and social service providers. Before Unite Us, Nick was co-founder and chief executive officer of Staple Health, a software platform that used artificial intelligence to identify the clinical and social drivers of risk in a patient population. Staple Health was successfully acquired by Unite Us in 2020. 
 
Lovejoy is a 2009 graduate of St. Lawrence University. He earned a master’s in health management from Yale University in 2016 and a master’s in information and data science from UC Berkeley in 2021. He has co-authored three publications which have appeared in Population Health Management, the Diabetes Care Journal, and the Journal of Academic Pathology. He has served on the board of advisors for Appalachian Mountain Club and has volunteered in patient care support at Porter Medical Center and for the Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department. He resides in Weybridge, Vermont.  

Andrew Mahoney, MD

Town of Residence: Charlotte, VT

Dr. Mahoney is a urologist who has practiced in Middlebury and operated at Porter Hospital since 2001. He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia and his medical degree in his native state at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He did an internship at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale and his urology residency at Georgetown University.

Drew practices general urology primarily in Middlebury, but also works one day a week at UVM Medical Center in Burlington. He was in private practice with Green Mountain Urology for 12 years before joining the UVM Medical Group in 2013. He and his wife, Andrea Green, MD, live in Charlotte and have three grown children.

Bob Ortmyer

Town of Residence: Bridport, VT

Bob assumed the role of interim president and chief operating officer at Porter Medical Center in 2023. He also serves as the president of Elizabethtown Community Hospital since joining the UVM Health Network in 2021. 

Bob has a rich history in healthcare leadership with over 30 years of dedicated service within the WellSpan Health System of York, PE. He occupied various leadership roles during his tenure there, including Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital. 

Bob holds a Master of Science in Human Resources Development from Villanova University and a BA in Behavioral Science from York College of Pennsylvania.

Smita Ruzicka, PhD

Town of Residence: Middlebury, VT

Smita Ruzicka, PhD is the vice president for student affairs at Middlebury College. Previously, she was dean of students at Johns Hopkins University and served in leadership roles at Tulane University and The University of Texas at Austin.

With a background as a licensed mental health therapist in Texas, Dr. Ruzicka operated a private counseling practice and supervised counseling interns. Her expertise also extends to organizational diversity and leadership consulting.

She earned her PhD in higher education administration from The University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Texas State University.

Ruzicka served on the Board of Directors for the Indian American Coalition of Texas (2012-2015) and the YWCA of Greater Austin (2003-2008).

 

Linda Schiffer

Town of Residence: Middlebury, VT

Linda Schiffer has been a trustee since 2015 and currently serves as the board’s chair. Linda began her career in radio news and moved into public relations in hospital settings including The Medical Center of Delaware, which later became Christiana Care and Franklin Square Hospital Center. She joined the staff of Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer’s Commission on Crime Control and Prevention where she worked on community programming. She expanded into marketing and new business development while living in Israel, working with incubators, and newly emerging companies seeking venture capital funding. Linda returned to the United States and Vermont where she worked for Fletcher CSI doing marketing research and later at Middlebury College in residential life and programming. She has an extensive background in nonprofit board participation both as a member and in leadership positions, including Jewish Family Services, Circus Smirkus, the United Way of Addison County, and the New England Center for Circus Arts.
 
Linda received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and a master’s degree in communications. She lives in Middlebury with her husband Ira. 

Elya Vasiliou, MD, FACS

Town of Residence: Vergennes, VT

Dr. Vasiliou is a general surgeon at Porter Medical Center. She has been board certified by the American Board of Surgery and is certified by the Vermont Board of Medicine. She earned her medical degree at Northeast Ohio Medical University and completed her residency at Summa Akron City Hospital in 2017. Dr. Vasiliou also completed a fellowship in head and neck endocrine surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2018. 

Helena Van Voorst

Vice Chair

Town of Residence: Vergennes, VT

Helena Van Voorst is the executive director of United Way of Addison County. She has extensive experience with nonprofit management, board development, strategic planning, fundraising, grant writing and grant making. Helena earned her bachelor’s degree in communication and public relations from Dordt College and her master’s in communication and leadership studies from Gonzaga University. In addition to the Porter Board of Trustees, Helena serves on the Vermont Women’s Fund Council and the United Ways of Vermont Board. Helena lives in Vergennes with her husband, two children and a recovering barn cat.