Southwestern Vermont Health Care Foundation Welcomes Three Directors to its Leadership

Caren McVicker; Arlene Palmiter; and Themarge Small, MD, FACOG, join Foundation Board of Directors

BENNINGTON, VT—November 15, 2018— The Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) Foundation is proud to announce that Caren McVicker, Arlene Palmiter, and Themarge Small, MD, FACOG, have joined its Board of Directors. 

“Each of these esteemed women is well known in her community and highly respected among her colleagues,” said Leslie Keefe, SVHC’s vice president of corporate development. “Their professional experiences and thoughtfulness will serve the Foundation well in its mission to engage our community in support of our health system.”

Caren McVicker is co-founder of PowerWeek Workshops, a social media and business productivity consulting group in Dorset, VT. Caren has been self-employed for more 25 years. Her consulting career began as a software documentation and training consultant on Wall Street. Working with clients such as Lipper Analytical Services (now a Reuters Company), The Associated Press, Goldman Sachs, Frito Lay, and Nabisco, she developed her passion for training and development. She now brings that enthusiasm to small businesses and nonprofits in Vermont and Massachusetts. Currently, McVicker is consulting as the operations coordinator at Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester as well as working with GNAT-TV, KURA Project, and The Dorset Chamber of Commerce.

McVicker has served on the SVHC Northshire Regional Advisory Board since 2016. She lives in Dorset with her husband Joe and their two sons. She sings in the Dorset Church choir. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with bachelors in communication arts from Southern Methodist University.

Arlene Palmiter holds a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and business and a master’s degree from Boston University in dietetics. During her graduate degree, she interned throughout the Boston Medical System, including at such institutions as Dana Farber and Mass General. She tackled the challenges related to health care access in rural communities in her master’s thesis.   She started her career in health care administration as department manager at Humana Health Systems in Anchorage, AK.

After moving to Vermont, Palmiter founded Palmiter Realty Group in Wilmington with her husband. Through this and other business involvement, she gained experience in development and building, in addition to real estate. After nearly 30 years, Palmiter sold the real estate business, which had been the highest volume real estate office in sales and maintained the largest rental business in the Mount Snow area for a decade. She enjoys spending time with her family and working on community service projects as a charter and current member of the Deerfield Valley Rotary Club and as a member of the SVHC Deerfield Valley Regional Advisory Board, to which she has belonged since 2008.

Themarge Small, MD, FACOG, is an obstetrician and gynecologist at SVMC OB/GYN. She received her medical degree at the University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. In addition, she earned a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Vermont and a post-baccalaureate certificate in premedical studies from Mills College in California. She completed her residency in OB/GYN at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.

Dr. Small served as the chair of the department of OB/GYN in 2014 and 2015 and as the vice president of the medical staff from 2016 to 2018. She is currently president of the medical staff. In addition to her role at SVMC, she is a clinical assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine. Dr. Small is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and is a fellow of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (FACOG).

The SVHC Foundation Board of Directors consists of 20 members. Directors are nominated by members of the board. The SVHC Foundation’s mission is to engage in development and fundraising activities exclusively for the support of the Southwestern Vermont Health Care Corporation.

About: Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, health care system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices. For more information, visit svhealthcare.org.

Southwestern Vermont Health Care complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.