Our Team

Heidi has been working in health care since 1985. She began her career at the American College of Nurse-Midwives and from there spent three years working for the Frontier Nursing Service in southeastern Kentucky. From 1989 to 2011, she managed the Department of Community Health Outreach at Porter Hospital, where, among a variety of programs and projects, she was fully responsible for managing and evaluating staff persons and developing and maintaining the departmental budget. While at Porter, and in collaboration with the Vermont Humanities Council, she was able to provide all employees and volunteers an opportunity to share experiences through the reading of literature, poetry and sharing stories. Prior to joining the Open Door Clinic staff, Heidi worked at Bristol Internal Medicine, volunteered at clinics and served on ODC's Board of Directors. Heidi earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and English from Wellesley College, and a Master's Degree in Public Health from Yale Medical School.

Fernanda was born in Argentina from Chilean parents. She came to the US as a 14-year-old non-English speaker. Her extended family resides in Chile. Over the past 39 years, she became an educator and school administrator in the public schools, with 32 of those years spent in Vermont schools. Fernanda and her husband, Chad, raised two children in Vermont and now are enjoying spending time with two grandchildren. Fernanda enjoys traveling, hiking and cross-country skiing. Upon retiring from education, in August 2022 she joined the Open Door Clinic as our Dental Coordinator. Fernanda enjoys the opportunity to speak Spanish and to be of service to others.

Melanie assists individuals and small businesses in understanding their health care options, provides them with impartial information regarding plans, and helps them apply for plans that best fit their needs. Prior to taking this position, she worked with the ODC for 13 years as the Tobacco Prevention Coordinator for Addison County, when she focused on tobacco prevention and control initiatives.

Julia is the ODC Clinical And Program Director. She has worked with Latinx migrant farmworkers in health care for over a decade, spearheading many innovative projects to increase access to health. Julia graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Environmental Science. She is fluent in Spanish and has lived and worked in Mexico and Central America.

Adam Fasoli graduated from Middlebury College with a BA in Religion in 2004, and from Tufts School of Dental Medicine in 2010. Adam has always known that he wanted to be in the healthcare profession but did not discover dentistry until after he graduated from Middlebury. Dentistry allows him help people with their oral health needs and also gives him the freedom to practice exactly the way he thinks will benefit the patients the most. Adam loves being a dentist and cannot imagine being in another profession. He is very excited to help integrate our migrant patient population into the Vermont healthcare community.

Max Hopper graduated from Acadia University with a degree in Business Administration in 2019. He has since continued his education at the University of Vermont's post-baccalaureate pre-dental program and is currently applying to dental schools. Max currently works as a dental assistant for Middlebury Dental Group and ODC's dental program, having joined us in the summer of 2023.

Michelle is from northern Vermont and worked on dairy farms as a young adult. She also spent many years in California and Arizona involved in crop production and produce handling. She has a master's degree in nursing from the University of Arizona, and has experience working in an acute care setting as well as home health. She is very honored to serve a patient population with such fortitude and resilience here at ODC.

Linn did her medical training at UVM and her residency in Tacoma, Washington, where she started volunteering in an urban free clinic. She has worked and lived in Addison County since 1992. Linn started volunteering with the Open Door Clinic when we were still operating out of a bus, and became our medical director in the summer of 2019. She has enjoyed travel medicine in Mexico, Peru and most recently in an Arizona migrant clinic. In her free time, she enjoys all sorts of sports, singing in choirs and socializing. Linn and her husband Ren Barlow have two grown children who are currently in graduate school in California.

A parent, survivor of chronic illness, and participatory researcher, ODC Communications and Volunteer Coordinator Dr. Susannah McCandless holds degrees in Geography, Biology, Francophone and Latin American studies. After college, she accompanied smallholder Costa Rican coffee farmers, who raised questions about conservation-as-usual. Back on unceded Western Abenaki territory, she studied who does the work to maintain Vermont’s working landscapes. She still collaborates with farmworkers, whose grassroots advocacy has changed terms of access, mobility, and self-determination in the state.

A Fulbright Scholar, Ford Community Forestry and Switzer Fellow, Susannah has taught at University of Vermont and Mount Holyoke College. She has worked on questions of land and food sovereignty, community forestry, ethnobiology, and environmental justice. When not at ODC, Susannah supports Indigenous- and other community-led initiatives to strengthen viable landscapes and dignified livelihoods.

Lillian started volunteering at ODC in January of 2024, in the office and as an interpreter. She served as our 2023 summer intern and loved getting to meet all of the wonderful patients and staff. A February 2025 Middlebury Middlebury College graduate, she studied environmental justice, Spanish, and little bit of Portuguese before joining the team as ODC's full-time Patient Services Coordinator. ODC’s mission to make healthcare more accessible is so important to her, and she is inspired by the community at the clinic. She looks forward to continuing to work with and learn from everyone at the clinic!

Charlotte Reider-Smith joined the Open Door team in September 2023, and has been helping out and filling in with whatever and whomever needs a hand, whether it’s writing, designing, mailing flu clinic flyers, deeming our doctors, or more! Charlotte grew up in San Francisco, connecting and interacting with many native Spanish speakers. She also spent a year living in Ecuador with a host family where she honed her Spanish skills, and has been overjoyed to be welcomed into a community of supportive, brilliant and diverse people, where she has been able bring Spanish back into her life. She loves the opportunity to work for an organization with an unquestionable mission to get behind, and a staff that makes her feel at home. Charlotte graduated from Middlebury College in 2019 and now lives in Goshen, VT. She has spent the last two years building her home and art studio, where she is excited to deepen her roots and continue her oil painting practice!

Fiona Galán Reinhold is a second-year Masters in Social Work (MSW) student who serves as ODC’s Clinical Social Work Intern, providing vital mental health services. As a second-generation Argentinean-American, Fiona has spent considerable time in Argentina visiting family and has lived in Nicaragua for a year with her husband. She has worked with children both in school systems and in their homes as a behavioral interventionist. Over the past year, Fiona has focused on supporting refugees and asylum-seekers, assisting them in navigating complex systems and providing mental health counseling. Fluent in Spanish, Fiona is passionate about delivering culturally sensitive care and serving the Spanish-speaking community in their native language. As a trauma-informed provider, she is dedicated to collaborating with individuals to develop healthy coping strategies and foster joy and hope in their lives.

Izzie Smith grew up in Addison County with a passion to serve her community. She started as the dental assistant in our program in the fall of 2023.