Hospitalist Medicine Providers

Sheri Brown, DNP

Sheri has been practicing for close to 20 years since graduating from State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine and getting her license to practice in Vermont. She received both her Bachelor’s and Associates degrees from Norwich University in Northfield.

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Melanie Del Frari, MSN, FNP-BC

Melanie Del Frari, MSN, FNP-BC, serves on the hospitalist team at Gifford Medical Center. Del Frari brings a unique blend of experience, perspective, and passion for community care. Before entering medicine, she earned her first degree in print journalism, but a deep-rooted calling to health care ultimately guided her toward nursing, a path influenced by her father, a physician, and her mother, a nurse practitioner.

She began her nursing career in 2007 as an ICU nurse. She later joined Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s nurse residency program, where she worked in the ICU and on the rapid response team. Over the years, she expanded her skills in the PACU, neurology, and vascular surgery. In 2020, she earned her degree as a Nurse Practitioner. This brought her closer to the goal she had set years earlier as a pre-med student: providing high-quality, personal care for patients.

That commitment is what ultimately drew her to Gifford. “I wanted more autonomy and the ability to practice independently, in a community where I could really get to know my patients,” she shared. “I’ve always been drawn to a smaller, rural setting where care feels more personal. I’m excited to be caring for my own neighbors.”

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Bryan Smith, MD

An internal medicine physician, Dr. Smith has practiced hospital medicine for the better part of his career. He brings to his role at Gifford more than 20 years of experience and a deep commitment to providing the highest-quality care to all patients:

“I think of the practice of medicine as a calling and access to excellent health care to be a fundamental human right. Because each of my patients historically has entrusted their care, and in many cases their lives, to me, I really am honored by this and indebted to them, and obligated to be the kind of doctor I would wish to have caring for me or my loved ones.”

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Richard Taylor, MD

Dr. Richard Taylor serves on Gifford’s hospitalist team providing exceptional 24-hour care to hospitalized patients.

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Kerin Vadnais, MSN, AGACNP-BC, RN

Kerin Vadnais is an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and experienced Critical Care Nurse serving on Gifford’s hospitalist team. Kerin provides exceptional 24-hour care to hospitalized patients during their stay at Gifford.

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Michelle Wade, APRN

Michelle Wade, MSN/Ed, APRN, NP-C, ACNP-AG, takes extra care to help transition patients from one level of care to another. She specializes in adult and geriatric care and understands the special needs of this population. Drawing on years of bedside experience in both acute and long-term care, she helps patients and their families during the stressful time of inpatient care. She believes it is most important to take time to talk to patients and families and collaboratively develop a plan of care that meets the goals of the patient.

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Rhonda Gale Whittie-Bradford, MD, MSPH, FACP

Dr. Rhonda Bradford provides inpatient care as part of Gifford’s hospitalist team. Bradford is an American College of Physicians Fellow (FACP), a peer-reviewed and peer-supported credential reflecting excellence within the internal medicine profession.

She describes her philosophy of care as rooted in empathy.
“I have complete empathy, and when you start from there, you understand what a patient feels, what they are going through, and can treat them appropriately,” said Bradford, who decided she wanted to practice medicine after witnessing how a physician treated her mother and grandmother for medical conditions at young ages.

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