Dr Ellamarie Russo-DeMara has moved full time to Gifford’s Twin River Health Center, where she will focus on providing comprehensive women's health services. A board certified OB/GYN since 1990, and at Gifford since 2005, she became the first menopause practitioner in Vermont in 2011. Dr Russo-DeMara provides routine gynecological care, contraception, and menopause consultation and treatment. She will continue to offer genetic testing and counseling for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in the Twin River office.

Darn Tough Vermont, the fastest growing American manufacturer of premium performance outdoor and lifestyle socks, is happy welcome its newest team member, Peter Kennedy. Peter joins the company as Senior Sales and Demand Analyst. As the brand continues to experience vigorous growth, the creation of this new role will enable Darn Tough to build upon its best-in-class customer service by balancing both anticipated consumer demand with knitting production and manufacturing.

Ryan Cloutier, LS has joined VHB as a Survey Manager in the firm’s growing South Burlington, Vermont office. In this role, Cloutier will provide overall program management for the Vermont office’s survey team and expand the suite of survey services offered to our state, municipal, and private sector clients. “We are thrilled to grow our Vermont Survey team with talented professional like Ryan,” noted Dave Saladino, PE, AICP, Managing Director of VHB’s South Burlington office.

Two University of Vermont-affiliated research teams have been awarded SPARK-VT grants by the university to help commercialize their work and move it a step closer to the marketplace. UVM PhD alumnus Ryan McDevitt; his doctoral advisor, Darren Hitt, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences; and Patrick Lee, an assistant professor in the department, won for the cost-effective propulsion system for small satellites they have developed, which is poised to address the coming revolution in the miniaturized satellite market.

Maurice G Paquette, MPAS, PA-C, of Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC), has been nationally recognized for earning a specialty credential called a Certificate of Added Qualifications (CAQ) from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA). Paquette earned a CAQ in Emergency Medicine, for which he met specific education, experience and licensure requirements and also successfully passed a national exam in the specialty.