The UVM Health Network

Noma Anderson, PhD

Town of Residence: Hinesburg, VT

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, D.C.  She is an expert in communication sciences and disorders and a leader in inclusive education and cultural and linguistic diversity. Dr. Anderson received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.S. from Emerson College in Boston, and a bachelor’s degree from Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia.

Sivan Cotel

Chair, Audit Committee

Town of Residence: Vergennes, VT

Sivan Cotel is a strategic executive and board leader with more than 15years of experience, including eight years launching new startups and five years managing profit/nonprofit governing boards to drive business performance and client service excellence.

A startup veteran focused on growing early-stage companies into businesses, he was the Co-Founder and former Director of Operations of Stonecutter Spirits, which was successfully acquired at the end of 2020. The Vermont producer of gin and whiskey was founded in 2013, and won top industry awards after launching its Single Barrel Gin in 2015 and Heritage Cask Whiskey in 2016 to rave reviews. Both products won the prestigious Good Food Award.

Before launching Stonecutter Spirits, Sivan was previously the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of WhistlePig Whiskey, producer of one of the highest-rated rye whiskies ever. With experience building and developing ideas from concept to fruition, he also continues as an independent business consultant and enjoys helping growing companies develop their operational and business planning.

He serves as a member of the Boards of Directors of the Green Mountain Secure Retirement Plan, Main Street Alliance of Vermont and is Chair of the Porter Medical Center Board. He spent the first part of his career in financial services at Bear Stearns, J.P.Morgan Chase and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, after graduating with honors from Wesleyan University with a Bachelor's degree double-majoring in Psychology and Music and a master's degree in Psychology. He currently lives in Vergennes, Vermont, and continues to play music in his spare time.

Michelle Cromwell, PhD

Town of Residence: Chandler, AZ

Dr. Michelle Cromwell is an equity-minded educator, scholar-activist, conflict coach, circle facilitator, integrative nutritional coach, yogi and Reiki practitioner. Described as a pracademic, which is a scholar-practitioner, who has one foot in the academe and the other in the wider community as an activist-partner, Dr. Cromwell believes in building bridges between their integrative practice and the surrounding community.

Dr. Cromwell serves as the Vice President for Inclusive Excellence and Belonging at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine & Health Sciences since December 2021. Prior to this position, Dr. Cromwell served as the inaugural Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at SUNY Plattsburgh, the AVP for Inclusive Excellence at Regis College in Weston Massachusetts, and as the Chief Diversity Officer at The School for International Training in Brattleboro Vermont.

Dr. Cromwell has a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution with a specialty in Ethnic Conflicts and an MS in Dispute Resolution, both from Nova Southeastern University in Florida where they were inducted as a Distinguished Alumni in 2018 for work in social justice and restorative practices. Dr. Cromwell’s B.Sc. in Social Work is from the University of the West Indies, in Trinidad and Tobago, where Dr. Cromwell was born. In their spare time, Dr. Cromwell enjoys teaching Kundalini yoga and Reiki, and developing whole food plant based recipes to mimic favorite foods from a West Indian childhood.

Victoria Duley

Secretary

Town of Residence: Clinton County, NY

Victoria Zinser Duley is Executive Director at the Adirondack Economic Development Corporation in Saranac Lake, New York. She has held positions in economic development, planning, higher education and research in the North Country, and before that in south Florida, for more than 20 years. She has worked in both the private and public sectors, including serving as the Dean of Research and Planning at Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh, New York before returning to the economic development field.

She has a BS from the University of New Hampshire and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University at Albany, and is a certified Economic Developer and a certified Planner.

She lives with her family in Clinton County, New York and is active in many community interests, including board or leadership positions in the Sunrise Rotary Club of Plattsburgh, the First Presbyterian Church of Plattsburgh, the Turner Board Foundation, Cumberland Head Elementary School PTO, Girl Scouts and the Adirondack North Country Association. 

John Dwyer

Chair, Finance Committee

Town of Residence: Williston, VT

John Dwyer is President and Chief Executive Officer of the New England Federal Credit Union, located in Williston, Vermont. He has been with the Credit Union since 1987, when he was hired as Vice President of Finance. In 2006, he was named President and Chief Operations Officer and stepped into his current role in 2010. He has a BS in business administration from the University of Vermont (1984) and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2000). Mr. Dwyer became a Certified Public Accountant in 1987. He is a Certified Credit Union Chief Executive and serves on national and regional committees for credit union trade groups. He has also served on a number of local nonprofit Boards including The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital’s Community Advisory Council, University of Vermont Medical Center, and the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce. From 2010 to 2013, he served on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Community Financial Institution Advisory Council.

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.

Dominic Eisinger, PhD

Chair, Alternative Investments Sub-Committee

Town of Residence: Keene, NY

Dominic Eisinger, PhD, is a biotechnology executive and entrepreneur who combines his scientific expertise with business insights to achieve sustained commercial impact and value.

In his current role at Myriad RBM (a subsidiary of Myriad Genetics), Dr. Eisinger leads global sales, marketing, customer support, new product development, and partnership strategies to position the company as a top provider of protein biomarker testing services for drug development clinical trials. He is the company’s lead scientific speaker on pharmacodynamic protein biomarker research in oncology, inflammation, cardiovascular, kidney, and autoimmune disease therapies.

Dr. Eisinger’s commercial success is grounded in his experiences as an entrepreneur. He co-founded, raised capital, and built Multiplex Biosciences, a contract research laboratory in Lake Placid, New York, which was acquired by RBM in 2006. Prior to that, he started and grew a business within a business at Upstate Cell Signaling Solutions, helping the company enter a new market and develop a reputation for innovation.

Dr. Eisinger previously served on the Board of the UVMHN-Elizabethtown Community Hospital for nine years, including three years as Vice Chair and two years as Chair. Over this period, the hospital more than doubled its revenue and profitability, quadrupled the number of remote primary care clinics, and expanded or renovated all of its facilities.

Dr. Eisinger earned a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and his PhD from the University of Vermont, prior to completing post-doctoral training at Dartmouth Medical School

Deena Giltz McCullough

Chair, Planning Committee

Town of Residence: Plattsburgh, NY

Deena Giltz McCullough is a third generation and first female president and CEO of Northern Insuring Agency. Headquartered in Plattsburgh, New York, Northern has a staff of 38 and two branch offices in Potsdam and Glens Falls. Under her leadership, NIA has won numerous awards including being recognized as a Best Company to Work in NYS by NYS-SHRM. She holds several professional designations and is most proud of completing the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland Coach Certification Program. She is also an International Coaching Federation Associate Certified Coach.

Ms. Giltz McCullough believes that our community is a better place to work, live and play if we all contribute our talents by volunteering. She lives that every day and is involved in organizations ranging from health care to education and banking to suicide prevention. In her own words she says “my strength and resiliency comes from authentically connecting with people, making a meaningful difference in our community and knowing the positive difference that one person can make in another person’s life.” 

A generally curious person, personal passions include quality time with family, friends and her schnoodle puppy, Zoom, plus time in nature especially if it involves a water or snow activity.

Tom Golonka

Chair, Investment Committee

Town of Residence: Montpelier, VT

Thomas J. Golonka is a managing partner with the investment firm of Silverlake Wealth Management in Williston and Montpelier, Vermont. Prior to joining Silverlake in 2005, Mr. Golonka was with Wachovia Securities Private Client Group for 12 years. Tom specializes in portfolio management and advanced planning strategies for high net worth individuals and corporations, and is a CFA^® charterholder as well as a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^TM practitioner. Mr. Golonka is Chair of the Vermont Pension Investment Committee (VPIC) and Trustee of the University of Vermont Health Network - Central Vermont Medical Center Board as well as a past City Councilor for Montpelier, Vermont. He holds a BA from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Union College. Tom resides in Montpelier with his wife, Cyndy Bashara Golonka, and their five children: Chloe, Kelsey, Joshua, Gregory and Kenzie.

Carol Haraden, PhD

Town of Residence: Middlebury, VT

Carol Haraden, PhD, is a senior faculty member at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) where she served as Vice President for 18 years. She was a member of the team responsible for developing innovative designs in patient care. She helped lead the IHI portfolio of patient safety programs worldwide with large-scale improvement programs in Scotland, Denmark, Singapore and Qatar. Dr. Haraden has published several papers on measuring patient harm, improving intensive care outcomes and innovation in health care design. She recently served on the Berwick Commission, the National Advisory Group on improving patient safety in the English National Health Service.

She has served on the Institute of Medicine Committee, Engineering Approaches to Improve Health Care. She has been a judge for several national quality awards including the Quest for Quality Award sponsored by the American Healthcare Association and the John Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality sponsored by the Joint Commission – the agency responsible for accreditation and standards for health care organization. She has served on AHRQ (US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) study sections. She has been an associate editor for the British Medical Journal, Quality and Safety in Health Care. Carol completed her Ph.D. in Statistics at the University of Wyoming and her nursing degree at the University of Maine. She joined the Education Dept. of MCHV (now UVMMC) in the early 1990s and became VP for Quality and Education before joining IHI. Throughout her years with IHI, Carol has maintained her home in Middlebury Vermont and enjoys her community, traveling, hiking, other outdoor activity. She now works part time at IHI.

Kevin Hart

Town of Residence: Chasm Falls, NY

Kevin Hart retired from Alice Hyde Medical Center in 2015 after 30 years of service, with a combined 40 years of health care experience throughout his career. At Alice Hyde, Mr. Hart served in roles of progressive responsibility, including Purchasing Director, Materials Management Director, Senior Director of Support Services and Vice President of Support Services, with senior oversight of both clinical and non-clinical areas throughout his tenure.

Mr. Hart held responsibility for all hospital construction and renovation projects, including full oversight of the construction of The Alice Center, Alice Hyde Medical Center’s $35 million premier building project including a 135 Bed skilled nursing facility and 30 Bed ALP; management of supply and capital purchases, served as the hospital’s safety officer, and was an integral part of the Senior Management team of the hospital. Mr. Hart is a past member of the Iroquois Board of Directors, past member of the Iroquois Purchasing Group, and National Incident Management System.

Mr. Hart currently serves as Secretary of the AHMC Board of Directors, is Chair of Board Quality Council Committee and is a member of its Board Finance Committee. He received his degree from the State University of New York at Delhi. He resides in Chasm Falls, New York, with his wife Mary, has three grown children, and is an avid outdoorsman.

Virginia Hood, MD

Chair, Population Health Committee

Town of Residence: Burlington, VT

Dr. Virginia L. Hood, MBBS, MPH, MACP, FRACP, FRCPE, a physician from Burlington, Vermont, is a Professor of Medicine Emerita in the Robert E. Larner MD College of Medicine, University of Vermont, and a nephrologist at University of Vermont Medical Center. She is President Emerita of the American College of Physicians and a member or the Executive Committee of the International Society of Internal Medicine.

She cares for patients with kidney disease and high blood pressure, teaches physiology, epidemiology, ethics and internal medicine to medical students, residents and community physicians and makes presentations nationally and internationally on kidney disease, professionalism and high value care.

Her scholarly activity has included acid-base metabolism research, health promotion research in diabetes prevention, blood pressure control quality improvement activities and high value care.

Dr. Hood is a medical graduate of the University of Sydney, and completed internal medicine residency training at Mater Misericordiae Hospital, North Sydney and a nephrology fellowship at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia. She received a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard School of Public Health, Boston MA, USA.

Robert Laskowski, MD, MBA

Chair, Governance Committee

Town of Residence: Waitsfield, VT

Dr. Robert (Bob) Laskowski is a retired physician executive, consultant, writer and educator. A three-time graduate of the University of PA (BA, MD and MBA), he is board-certified in internal medicine with additional certification in geriatrics. Dr. Laskowski retired in 2014 as President and CEO of Christiana Care, one of the nation’s largest health systems, based in Wilmington, Delaware. Trained as a health services researcher, Dr. Laskowski has a long-standing interest in viewing the health care system from the vantage point of the people the system is privileged to serve. He is co-editor of the blog www.yourhealthperspectives.com.

Dr. Laskowski currently serves as a board member of Healthy Aging MV and is a member of the Dukes County Health Council. He is a past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges. He holds professorial appointments at Thomas Jefferson University and the University of Delaware. Bob and his wife Kathy are seasonal residents of Waitsfield, Vermont. When not in Vermont, they live on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Debra Leonard, MD, PhD

Town of Residence: South Burlington, VT

Dr. Debra G. B. Leonard, MD, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine and the University of Vermont Health Network. Dr. Leonard completed her undergraduate education at Smith College and her medical and scientific training at New York University. She has been on the faculty at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Leonard is an expert in molecular pathology and genomic medicine. She has developed a team to implement genome-informed medicine, including cancer, pharmacogenetics and genome population screening for the University of Vermont Health Network.

Richard Page, MD

Town of Residence: Shelburne, VT

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.

John Rugge, MD

Chair, Quality Committee

Town of Residence: Queensbury, NY

John Rugge is a practicing family physician, as well as the founder of Hudson Headwaters Health Network, a Federally Qualified Health Center that is the only local medical provider for much of the Adirondacks and the primary care safetynet for the Glens Falls “micropolitan” area. From a single site in Chestertown in 1974, Hudson Headwaters has grown to include 18 health centers caring for some 100,00 patients. The most recent center, Plattsburgh Family Health, was conceived and constructed in partnership with CVPH and UVMHN.

Following an appointment to Governor Carey’s Health Advisory Council in 1979, Dr. Rugge has become a regular commentator and contributor to health policy in New York State with participation on 27 councils and commissions over the years. Additional activities include board membership of the Community Health Care Association of New York State, the Primary Care Development Organization, the Adirondack Health Institute, and the Adirondacks ACO for which he currently serves as President.

All these pursuits are in service to a life-long interest and commitment to what is now termed population health. Dr. Rugge prepared for medical practice in the mountains by earning degrees at Williams College (BA), Harvard (MTS), and Yale (MD), and by writing articles and books on wilderness canoeing in Labrador.

Kerin Stackpole, Esq.

Chair, Compensation Committee

Town of Residence: Shelburne, VT

Kerin Stackpole is a Director at Paul Frank + Collins in Burlington, and is the leader of the Employment and Labor Law Group. Her practice areas include employment law, business counseling and general civil litigation. She is a native of Burlington, and is admitted to practice law in Vermont, Maryland and the District of Columbia. She is an honors graduate of the Washington College of Law, American University and Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. She has been recognized by her peers for her skill in labor and employment law through inclusion in Chambers & Partners (USA), Best Lawyers of America and Super Lawyers. She has served on numerous community Boards, including the VNA, Wake Robin and Wheaton College.

Allie Stickney

Chair

Town of Residence: Shelburne, VT

Allie Stickney is the retired President/CEO of Wake Robin Life Care Community, located in Shelburne, VermontT. She previously had a decades-long career with Planned Parenthood, successively serving in senior leadership and CEO positions in Vermont, Oregon and New York City. Her positions have included responsibility at the local, state, national and international level, and she has directed the provision of reproductive health care services in rural and urban areas of the United States as well as countries in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central/South America.

She serves on the Boards of Directors of UVM Health Network Home Health and Hospice, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and is the President of the Vermont Women’s Forum, a chapter of the International Women’s Forum.

Ms. Stickney first moved to Vermont in 1968. Her career has brought two out-of-state moves in the intervening years, but she has continually been drawn back to the Green Mountain State. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont and resides in Shelburne, Vermont.

Betsy Vicencio

Town of Residence: Plattsburgh, NY

Betsy Vicencio has devoted her career to a signature move – Make It Better. Over the past 36 years, her experiences have taken her from privately owned large and small corporations to US Government contracts and include a personal business failure. Her diverse, experiential skill set provides foundation to living the mantra “Make It Better”. Outcome driven, she is hard-working, perseverant and dedicated to success.

Graduate of the University of Vermont, Betsy serves as the Vice President/CFO, Partner of The Northeast Group of Companies for the past 16 years. Northeast Printing & Distribution Services, Inc, dba The Northeast Group is a regional leader in commercial print, direct mail, warehousing and fulfillment services for more than 250 customers locally, nationally and internationally. Additionally, this company publishes the premium business advocacy for the North Country, Strictly Business Magazine, promoting all that is good about business since 1999. The newest venture of The Northeast Group of Companies is the MHAB Life Skills Campus, providing residential and support services for people in all forms of recovery – substance use disorder – drug/alcohol addiction, mental health issues, poverty, domestic violence, criminal history and other societal ails. In addition to providing opportunities and services to these challenged and vulnerable community members, MHAB looks to de-stigmatize these problems to create a stronger, more welcoming region.

Single mother of two girls, Bridgid (age 30) and Santana (age 24), “YaYa” of granddaughter, Rayne (age 5 1/2) and grand-dog Princess Bean (age 4), parent of four dogs, Angel (age 9), Alto and Tenor (age 8) and Gus-Gustavus Maximus (age 6), Betsy serves as Vice Chair of University of Vermont Health Network at CVPH Board of Trustees, trustee of Clinton Community College Board of Directors, member of Plattsburgh Noon Rotary Club, emcee and committee member of Girl Scouts of the North Country Women of Distinction Dinner Event, and panel moderator for the Plattsburgh North Country Chamber Celebration of Women in Business.

Kara Walker, MD, MPH, MSHS

Town of Residence: North Potomac, MD

Dr. Kara Odom Walker is Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer of Nemours Children’s Health System. Dr. Walker leads the Nemours National Office, Advocacy and Public Policy, as well as all aspects of Population Health Strategy, Research, Innovation and Implementation. Her scope of responsibility includes advancement of the overall health and well-being of children, both broadly and among the populations served by Nemours. Dr. Walker collaborates with operational leaders and shares accountability for managed care initiatives, to include medically complex case management, school-based wellness programs and other services for specific populations. From January 2017 to August of this year, Dr. Walker served as Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services under Governor John Carney. She was previously the Deputy Chief Science Officer at the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute and is a board-certified practicing family physician. Dr. Walker is a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Walker holds a Medical Degree from Thomas Jefferson University, a Master of Science in Health Sciences from UCLA, a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware.