Board of Trustees

Noma Anderson, PhD

Town of Residence: Hinesburg, Vermont

Dr. Noma Anderson became Dean of the UVM College of Nursing & Health Sciences on February 1, 2021, joining UVM from the University of Tennessee Health Center where she served as Dean and was appointed special advisor to the president on diversity and inclusion. Dr. Anderson is a past professor and chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Florida International University, where she also served as Dean in the School of Health Sciences. Prior to that, Anderson was a chair for 10 years and on the faculty for 16 years in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Howard University in Washington. She is an expert in communication sciences and disorders and a leader in inclusive education and cultural and linguistic diversity. Dr. Anderson received her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s degree from Emerson College in Boston, and a bachelor’s degree from Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia.

Joe Bilodeau

Town of Residence: Essex, Vermont

Joe was a founder of Bilodeau Wells & Company CPA's in Essex Junction. He has over 40 years of experience working with clients in a wide variety of industries. Joe is now partially retired and works primarily in business valuation and select estate planning.

Joe is also an experienced landlord and commercial and residential real estate advisor. He also serves as a private trustee for select families, advising on charitable foundations and leveraged giving.

Joe has the professional designations of Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Global Management Accountant and is a Certified Valuation Analyst.

Joe is a native Vermonter from Middlebury and graduated from the University of Vermont.

Jesse Bridges, MPA

Chair
Town of Residence: Jericho, Vermont

Jesse Bridges is chief executive officer for the United Way of Northwest Vermont, the leading organization in convening advocates, leaders and volunteers to address complex social problems and secure the resources to support change. Under his leadership since 2017, the organization achieved recognition as one of the best places to work in Vermont, created a continuous dynamic strategic planning process and shifted the organization's business model to a more sustainable vision for the future.

He previously served as the City of Burlington's director of the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department. Under Jesse's leadership, the department finished the city's first-ever comprehensive parks master plan. He also helped found the Parks Foundation, a separate 501c3 to raise private dollars to support the ongoing park rehabilitation efforts.

Jesse received a bachelor's degree in history in 2002 and a master's in public administration in 2008, both from the University of Vermont. In 2011, he graduated from the Lake Champlain Chamber's leadership program. Jesse has been serving on the board of directors for the Lake Champlain Chamber since 2012.

Jane Catton, MSOL, BScN, RN, NE-BC

Town of Residence: St. Albans, Vermont

Jane is the CEO of Age Well, Northwestern Vermont's leading advocate for the aging population and the largest Area Agency on Aging in the State of Vermont, providing access to healthy meals, in-home care and community resources. She is also an adjunct professor at Champlain College Online (CCO) in the Health Care Administration program.   

Jane has worked in various hospital, academic and community-based health care settings as a registered nurse in Critical Care and Oncology and as a senior administrative leader. Previously, she was a senior vice president, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer at Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, Vermont. Jane is passionate about opportunities to build collaborations and advocacy, that support home and community-based care models, including the management of the social determinants of health, especially in vulnerable older populations.

Jane holds a BS in nursing and dual master's degrees in health care administration and organizational leadership. She is a board-certified nurse executive with additional certification in healthcare quality.

Originally from Canada, Jane made Vermont her home in 1992. She lives in St. Albans with her husband, two dogs and loves to spend time with their five grown children.

Kevin Chu

Town of Residence: South Burlington, Vermont

Kevin Chu is executive director of Vermont Futures Project and co-founder and president of Sprinticity Athletics. A graduate of Middlebury College, Kevin spent more than six years working for the University of Vermont in a variety of roles. He served as managing director of the office of engagement, strategic innovations and communications lead for the Rubenstein School, professional advisor for the university’s environmental program and assistant director of admissions for diversity. A resident of South Burlington, Kevin is pursuing his master’s degree in education from the University of Vermont. He is the director of youth track and field for Burlington Parks and Recreation.

Naomi Clemmons

Town of Residence: Burlington, Vermont

Naomi is a senior technical advisor for JSI Research and Training Institute, Inc. - a global public health consulting organization dedicated to greater health equity and improving the health of individuals and communities. With over 25 years of experience specializing in maternal and child health, Naomi's work focuses on the drivers of health disparities that perpetuate poor health outcomes experienced by women, children and families.

Anne W. Doremus, CFA

Town of Residence: Shelburne, Vermont

Anne Doremus is managing partner of Hanson & Doremus Investment Management, where she is responsible for firm strategy, portfolio management, security analysis and client interaction. Before joining the firm in 1996, she spent five years with a major mutual fund company, Sentinel Advisors, in Montpelier, Vermont, and three years with Fraser Management Associates in Burlington. She is a founding member and past president of the Vermont CFA Society. She has taught investment management courses at Saint Michael's College and The University of Vermont. Doremus holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from The University of Vermont and an master’s of business administration from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. She is also a CFA Charterholder. Ms. Doremus has served on a number of nonprofit boards and currently sits on the Investment Committee for the Society of St. Edmund and the UVM Health Network Home Health & Hospice. She lives in Shelburne with her husband. Her interests include hiking, Nordic skiing and golf.

Sunil "Sunny" Eappen, MD, MBA

Town of Residence: South Burlington, Vermont

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. 

John N. Evans, PhD

Town of Residence: South Burlington, Vermont

Dr. Evans is currently senior advisor to the president and provost of The University of Vermont and a Professor Emeritus in the UVM Larner College of Medicine. He also serves as president of the Vermont Technology Council, an organization that fosters technology-enabled companies in the state by integrating the efforts of the private, public and academic sectors. The Council is also the statewide board for the Vermont EPSCoR Program.  Dr. Evans earned his PhD in 1976 from the University of Florida College of Medicine and has had a distinguished career as a biomedical researcher, with numerous publications and honors, including being named an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association. He was Executive Dean or Dean of the UVM Larner College of Medicine from 1992-2001 and 2003-2006. He currently serves on the boards of the Vermont Mutual Insurance Company, Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation, Vermont PBS, UVM Medical Center and Vermont Technology Council.

Ann Guillot, MD

Town of Residence: Burlington, Vermont

Dr. Guillot is a pediatric nephrologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center. She is also a professor emeritus at UVM's Larner College of Medicine, where she teaches within the departments of pediatrics and surgery, focusing on pediatric nephrology and urology. She served as program director for the Pediatric Residency Program for 25 years.

Dr. Guillot's contributions to academic medicine include over 100 published medical research studies.  

She received her Doctor of Medicine from Thomas Jefferson Medical College and completed her residency in Pediatrics at UVM Medical Center. Dr. Guillot then completed her fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology at Montreal Children's Hospital before returning to UVMMC to complete a fellowship in Nephrology. 

Joseph F. Hagan, Jr., MD, FAAP

Town of Residence: Burlington, Vermont

Joseph Hagan, Jr., is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the UVM Larner College of Medicine and UVM Children's Hospital. He is co-editor of The Bright Futures Guidelines (3rd and 4th editions), the standard of preventive care for infants, children, adolescents and young adults. Dr. Hagan served as American Academy of Pediatrics - Vermont Chapter vice president and president, and he chaired the Academy's national Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, Task Force on Terrorism and the Neurobehavioral Disorder Associated with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Workgroup. His commitment to the care of vulnerable children led Dr. Hagan to chair the Citizens Advisory Board for the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCH). He consults for the DCH commissioner on complex child protection cases and is a consulting physician at the UVM Children's Hospital ChildSafe Clinic. He practices and teaches primary care pediatrics in Burlington, Vermont.

Churchill Hindes, PhD

Town of Residence: Colchester, Vermont

Churchill Hindes recently finished his career as a health care administrator and educator with 51 years in health services, higher education, nonprofit leadership and public policy. He retired as a consultant to the UVM Health Network and a vice president of the UVM Medical Center. He previously served as chief operating officer of the OneCare Vermont health care payment reform initiative, chief executive officer of the Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties, financial vice president of Fletcher Allen Health Care, chief financial officer of the University Health Center and administrative director of the Vermont Lung Center. He began his health care career in 1966 while in college when he was hired as a groundskeeper for the Mary Fletcher Hospital.  

Church served on the cabinets of Governors Richard Snelling and Madeleine May Kunin as commissioner of budget and management/state budget director and as deputy secretary of administration. Dr. Hindes served as Board Chair for the Vermont State Colleges System from 2017 to 2020 and he retired from that board after 19 years as a gubernatorially-appointed trustee.    His academic career began in 1972 as an Instructor at the University of Iowa and concluded in 2019 as a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine/Public Policy at the University of Vermont.  He also held a faculty appointment at Saint Michael’s College.   

He holds a doctorate in health administration and policy from the University of Iowa and is a graduate of Saint Michael's College. A seventh generation Vermonter, Church lives in Colchester with his wife, Marilyn Lanou Hindes. They have three sons and four grandchildren. 

Stephen Leffler, MD

Town of Residence: Hinesburg, Vermont

Stephen Leffler was named president and chief operating officer of UVM Medical Center on January 1, 2020. He has worked at the UVM Medical Center as an emergency room physician for more than 25 years, and is a Professor of Surgery at the UVM Larner College of Medicine. Dr. Leffler has worn many hats at UVM Medical Center and UVM Health Network during his career. He served as chief population health and quality officer for UVM Health Network from 2017-2019; chief medical officer at UVM Medical Center from 2011-2017; prior to that, he served as medical director of the Emergency Department at the UVM Medical Center for several years. He also has served as president of the medical staff at UVM Medical Center, president of the Vermont Medical Society, and he currently serves as chair of the ONE Care Board. He received his medical degree from the UVM Larner College of Medicine and completed residency training in emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico before joining the UVM faculty in 1993. He completed his master's in health care delivery science at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in 2016.

Thomas A. Little, Esq.

Town of Residence: Shelburne, Vermont

Thomas Little joined VSAC in 2002 as vice president and general counsel after serving for many years as outside counsel. He was an attorney with the Burlington firm Little & Cicchetti from 1980-2002 and remains of counsel. Mr. Little was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1992-2002 and has chaired the District 4 Environmental Commission (Vermont's Act 250 land-use permit commission for Chittenden County) since 2003. He has served on the following Boards: University of Vermont (2001-2007), Shelburne Zoning (1986-1996), ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain (2003-2010; 2013-present), Visiting Nurse Association (1994-2001), Converse Home (1983-2014), Cathedral Square Housing Corporation, Vermont Center for the Book and Snelling Center for Government. Mr. Little is a member of the Vermont Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont and was a member of the Commission on the Future of Vermont's Justice System in 1999. In Shelburne, where he resides, he serves as town meeting moderator, justice of the peace and Board of Civil Authority chair. He received a bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College and a law degree from Cornell University.

Elizabeth (Lisa) McGee, MD

Town of Residence: Hinesburg, Vermont

Dr. McGee grew up in Asheville, North Carolina and in middle Tennessee in a large rural county with five doctors and no specialists serving a population of 35,000. Access to care generally meant long drives to cities or emergency visits to the county hospital, where Lisa later worked while on vacations from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She attended medical school in Memphis on a scholarship and later completed her residency and fellowship training at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas. After her clinical training, Lisa had a research fellowship a Stanford University in women’s health and ovarian physiology. She went on to faculty appointments in Pittsburgh, Richmond Virginia, and finally at UVM in 2013. She is currently vice chair of gynecology and director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility.

She received her master’s in business administration in health care policy and management in 2021 from Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She lives in Hinesburg with her husband on a small farm. They are both active supporters of the Hinesburg Resource Center and Food Shelf. Her hobbies are vegetable gardening, dabbling in blacksmithing and reading.

 

Meg H. O’Donnell, Esq.

Secretary
Town of Residence: Shelburne, Vermont

Meg O’Donnell is a retired attorney specializing in health care law and health care policy. A magna cum laude graduate of New York Law School, Meg spent the bulk of her career working in Vermont, including clerking for the Vermont Supreme Court; working for the Vermont Health Care Authority and its successor, the Division of Health Care Administration; serving as the director of government & community relations and assistant general counsel for UVM Medical Center; and teaching health policy as an adjunct professor at the University of Vermont. A resident of Shelburne, she has been active in the local community for decades, serving on multiple community boards, and serving as a facilitator for the Snelling Center for Government’s Vermont Leadership Institute. In addition to her law degree, Meg holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and a master’s degree from Columbia University.

Richard L. Page, M.D.,

Town of Residence: Shelburne, Vermont

Dr. Richard Page became Dean of the UVM Larner College of Medicine in October 2018, joining UVM from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, where he was the George R. and Elaine Love Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine. He received his medical degree from Duke University and completed his specialty training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Duke University Medical Center. He is a nationally recognized specialist in cardiac arrhythmias, serving on the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines Task Force; and as chair of the Circulatory Devices Panel of the US Food and Drug Administration.

Alyson "Aly" Richards

Vice Chair
Town of Residence: Montpelier, Vermont

Aly Richards of Montpelier is currently chief executive offiver of Let's Grow Kids, a statewide movement to make Vermont the best place to raise a family with a mission to ensure affordable access to high-quality child care for all Vermont families by 2025. Prior to this role, she served as the deputy chief of staff and director of intergovernmental affairs for Governor Peter Shumlin. In this position, Ms. Richards had leading roles in several of the Shumlin administration's efforts to support early childhood—including winning competitive federal Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge and Preschool Expansion grants and supporting the passage of universal pre-K. Prior to joining the governor's office, Ms. Richards served on the 2008 Obama campaign and worked as the mid-Atlantic deputy finance director at the Democratic National Committee. She received her bachelor’s degree with honors in international relations from Brown University.

Weiwei Wang

Town of Residence: Burlington, Vermont

Weiwei Wang is a co-founder and the director of operations and development of the Vermont Professionals of Color Network, founded in 2019 and dedicated to advancing the prosperity of all professionals of color throughout Vermont by "building from within". Additionally, she is a founding member of and director of operations for the Vermont Health Equity Initiative, focused on providing accessible, human-centered healthcare and health education to all BIPOC Vermonters. Previously, she worked at the University of Vermont's Center for Rural Studies managing and conducting research for multi-state USDA funded projects, and in Boston and Shanghai as a project manager for companies ranging from regional to international in scale. In both her personal and professional life, Weiwei brings a passion for community connection and development, and redefining accessibility for historically excluded communities, by changing systems of oppression.  

Currently, Weiwei serves as the vice chair for Public Assets Institute, and serves on the Champlain College Stiller School of Business Dean's Advisory Committee, the UVM Cancer Center Community Advisory Council, the Racial Equity Advisory Panel for the State of Vermont, and the Governor's Institute of Vermont Board of Directors. Her past board experience includes the Peace and Justice Center and the Board for Registration of Voters for the City of Burlington. She is an alum of Vermont Changemakers Table, New Leaders Council – Vermont Chapter, and Leadership Champlain. She received the 2022 Distinguished Citizen Award from Champlain College for her work with the Vermont Professionals of Color Network. 
 
When not working, Weiwei loves to work. For “fun” she likes to give herself anxiety by performing stand-up at the Vermont Comedy Club.