Lynn Zanardi Blevins, M.D.

 

Lynn is a physician and field epidemiologist by training, teaches environmental public health at the University of Vermont. She takes a ‘One Health’ approach to her public health teaching, emphasizing the link between human, animal and environmental health. Lynn serves as an advisor to the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association's One Health Committee and enthusiastically contributes to the sustainability and resilience of her community through Sustainable Williston and Transition Williston.

 

Virginia Clarke, D.V.M.

 

Virginia is a veterinarian in Richmond, VT.  She has owned and operated the Richmond Animal Hospital (in partnership) for the past 27 years, and has a longstanding interest in animal welfare.  Active in the state veterinary organization (VVMA), Virginia chaired the Animal Welfare Committee for 8 years; travelled to New Orleans to assist with post-hurricane animal rescue; is a board member of the statewide animal disaster planning organization (VDART), and has worked on numerous legislative initiatives related to animal welfare. She has also been active in town government, serving on the Richmond Planning Commission and Selectboard.  

 

“I believe that animal and human health are integrally related, and that global climate change is the most important threat to our combined welfare since the rise of modern humans.”       

 

Greg Dana, M.P.A.

 

Greg is currently a Facilitator and Evaluation Consultant working on the Vermont Blueprint for Health. Prior to this position, he conducted community- and clinic-based health promotion/disease prevention research. He also has worked in the research and planning offices of several Vermont state government departments.

 

“The VTCHA is important to me as a voice for my belief that climate change is negatively impacting the health of living things and the planet as a whole. The group is advocating for the health care and public health systems to be environmental stewards, and to do what is possible to mitigate and adapt to these effects for a healthy and sustainable future. I support that mission.”

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Michelle Dorwart, MD, MPH

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Michelle is a family physician practicing at the Community Health Centers of Burlington. She is from a small town in western Nebraska, and she attended medical school at the University of Nebraska. After medical school, she moved to Baltimore to earn an MPH from Johns Hopkins University. During her MPH studies, she focused on global environmental sustainability and health, and she helped start a fossil fuel divestment campaign at JHU. Michelle moved to Vermont for residency and has enjoyed the relative ease of making environmentally friendly lifestyle choices: biking or walking to work, recycling and composting, and eating local food (among other things!).

 

"I'm excited to be working with a group of medical professionals on raising awareness of the effects of climate change on health with the goal of invoking legislative and systemic changes in Vermont and beyond."

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Kent Henderson, D.V.M

 

Kent Henderson is a dairy-exclusive veterinary clinician, who has been working on farms in NW Vermont and NE New York for 43 years, as a member of Northwest Veterinary Associates, Inc.. As Chair of the Friends of Northern Lake Champlain, our group was intimately involved with the collaborative effort which included the numerous legislative committees, environmental groups, farmers, and lake shore residents who successfully came together to achieve the passage of Act 64, the 2015 Clean Water Bill.

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In 2016, FNLC worked with Northwest Regional Planning Commission on the Lake Champlain Basin Program Climate Navigators project to identify community leaders and teach them how to properly communicate climate change language with their constituents and business partners.  We believe that honest conversation which demands scientific back ground is the foundation for learning to live with our changing climate.

 

Rebecca Jones, M.D.

Rebecca is a practicing physician, writer, and climate change and human rights activist. She is also a proud member of 350Vemont and VTCHA.  Rebecca attended Bates College and UMASS Medical School. Her residency in dermatology was spent at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

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Megan Malgeri, M.D.

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Megan is a family physician practicing in Milton, VT.  She was born in Burlington and has spent much of her life in the Green Mountains. She attended Dartmouth College and studied environmental studies. After college she worked at the SCA (Student Conservation Association), a non-profit that helps provide national parks internships for high school and college students.  She also taught environmental and outdoor education at a 4H Center in North Carolina, before returning to Vermont to study medicine and complete her residency.  She works at University of Vermont Medical Center as a clinical faculty member at the resident teaching site in Milton. 

 

Megan has long been interested in the interface between human health and the health of our environment, and hopes to find a niche in her practice to include a focus on these issues.

 

Donald R. McIntyre, M.D.

 

Don received both MD and BA Chemistry degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a founding member and first President of the Vermont Dermatological Society. Don is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, and a member of the Vermont Medical Society (also a former VMS Council member.)

 

“As a parent, grandparent, outdoors enthusiast, world traveler and lover of this Vermont, USA and Earth, I know the peril that global warming poses for our present and future living.  Today we can’t rely on our federal administration to guard our environment's safety.  Holding onto that safety and health falls to the rest of us--you and me.  Let's do it.”

 

Karen McKenny, R.N.

 

As a nurse for 33 years at UVMMC and a mother of three, Karen is passionate about the health of our communities. She is an active member of the South Burlington Energy Committee, and was honored to speak at the national CleanMed/ Practice Greenhealth conference on the Direct and Indirect Effects on Health by Climate Change.

 

“Climate change is a threat to those I care for at home and at work.  My activism spirit was ignited years ago playing an online environmental game called “Vermontivate.”  I believe in the power of community, in the idea that we can all make a difference one person at a time and that together we can make our world more sustainable, healthy, and resilient.”  

 

Dan Quinlan M.B.A, M.S.

VTCHA Chair

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Dan is an independent consultant and also works in non-profit management. He has worked with hospital executive teams across New England on capital investment programs centered on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Dan has also advised health care and other organizations with their fossil fuel divestment strategies. He also helps manage a Vermont non-profit that designs and runs clinician well-being programs in hospitals across the country. His professional life has spanned the for-profit and non-profit sectors, working in business development, management, finance, and R&D. Dan’s educational training includes a BSEE (University of New Hampshire), a MS-Physics (Pennsylvania State University) and a MBA (Columbia University).

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“Early in my career, I was a research scientist at Bell Laboratories – where a talk about rising global temperatures was my introduction to climate change. At the time, few people in the audience appreciated the implications of that talk – what it meant for the planet and for humanity. In recent years, that has hit me full force as I became immersed in a wide range of climate change and clean energy projects.”

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David Rand, D.O., M.P.H.

 

David is an assistant professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Vermont where he practices as an oncology hospitalist. He graduated from the internal medicine residency program at the University of Vermont, completed a Master’s degree in public health at Yale University, and attended medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is a member of VT chapter of 360.org, the sierra club, and the green mountain club.

"Climate change is happening now and poses a catastrophic risk to human health. As a physician, I feel an obligation do whatever I can to combat to it. I look forward to working with fellow health care providers to help our state decrease its carbon footprint through education and advocacy."