Stronger Together
Maple Mountain Vermont is a consortium of rural health centers from every corner of our pastoral state. You can experience rotations in varied smaller communities, helping you discover the doctor you truly want to be. We also have larger partners, to help create more robust experiences in didactics, inpatient pediatrics, critical care, and subspecialty disciplines making you well prepared to practice independently.
Our partners:
Gifford Healthcare FQHC*
Lamoille Health Partners FQHC*
Northern Counties FQHC*
Northern Tier Center for Health FQHC*
Community Health Centers of the Rutland Region FQHC*
North Star Health FQHC*
Central Vermont Medical Center
Oishei Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, NY
University of Vermont Medical Center
*Maple Mountain Vermont consortium member organizations
Meet our Team
Melissa Volansky, MD
Physician, Designated Institution Official
Melissa Volansky, M.D., grew up in Stowe Vermont and has practiced primary care family medicine in the Stowe and Morrisville communities since 1999. She graduated from The Robert Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and completed residency training at The Highland Hospital at The University of Rochester. She has served as Chief Medical Officer for the Lamoille Health Partners’ federally qualified health center. She was involved in developing the Maple Mountain Vermont Family Medicine Residency Program and serves as its sponsoring institution’s Designated Institutional Official. She lives with her husband and two energetic dogs in Morrisville, Vermont. She enjoys cross-country skiing, kayaking, family time, and travel!
Emilija Florance, MD
Gifford Provider and Associate Program Director, Maple Mountain Vermont
Emilija Florance, MD came into medicine after transitioning from a career in hospitality. She returned to school with a clear mission to become a rural family physician. She graduated from MCV/VCU in Richmond, Virginia, where she also completed a 4-year I2CRP longitudinal program dedicated to caring for medically underserved populations. Her training journey then took her to Riverside in Newport News, Virginia, for her residency before she officially relocated to Vermont. She quickly integrated into Gifford Medical Center Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), where she now serves as the clinical coordinator of their primary care department. She enthusiastically stepped into the role of Associate Program Director (APD) for the Maple Mountain Family Medicine residency's Gifford placement site with the goal to mentor and train the next generation of family physicians. When off the clock, she loves traveling, crafting glasswork in her home kiln, and baking.
John G. King, MD, MPH
Family Physician, Program Director
John King, MD, MPH became interested in medicine after ski patrolling as a teenager in Cazenovia, NY near his hometown. He obtaining his BS in Ecology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, MPH in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, MD degree at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and completed Family Medicine Residency at Duke University. Dr. King has been training medical students and family medicine residents for over 30 years with an emphasis on applying the best evidence to each patient with shared decision making. As program director and academic vice chair at the University of Vermont and founding program director for the UVM affiliated CVPH Family Medicine Program he honed his skills in program development and was thrilled to help Maple Mountain Vermont develop a new program in the small communities of Vermont near where he lives. He lives in Waterbury, VT with his wife and two dogs, they have three grown children, and in his free time he enjoys anything that slides on snow or rides on two wheels. Ask him about the Tour Divide, VT50, back country skiing, Cycle Conservation Club of Vermont, or the Craftsbury Marathon.
Julie Yirka
Maple Mountain Program Administrator
Julie Yirka fell in love with Vermont when she and her three children moved here in 2007. She brings extensive experience in healthcare, medical education and higher education administration. She has held leadership and program management roles at Vermont Law and Graduate School, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and community-based nonprofit organizations. She earned her Associate’s Degree in Liberal Studies with a Specialization in Global Studies from the Community College of Vermont and a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies with concentrations in Addictions and Human Services from Southern New Hampshire University. Passionate about rural healthcare and workforce development, she is dedicated to advancing Maple Mountain Vermont’s mission of preparing family physicians to provide high-quality care in rural communities throughout Vermont. Outside of work, she loves to cook, read, and enjoy all the beauty that Vermont has to offer while spending time with her adult children and their four dogs.
Dr. Robert Quinn
Lamoille Provider and Associate Program Director, Maple Mountain Vermont
My love of the outdoors, particularly skiing made me leave the NJ suburbs for Middlebury College and Vermont has been dear to me ever since! While at Middlebury, I was introduced to rugby which evolved into a lifelong pursuit albeit just as a spectator in recent decades. After college I moved to Jackson, WY where I was able to ski all day then work in group homes for developmentally challenged youth at night. After a few years in the Tetons, I was ready to transition to med school. I went to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland where I was completely enamored with the Irish and with living in Europe. I started playing rugby again and had the privilege of playing in multiple “Dublin Hospitals’ Cups.” This was revered as the longest running contest in all of sports as it started before the Olympics, the World Series, the Stanley Cup and it was never interrupted by war like the “London Hospitals’ Cup” which had an earlier inception. The standard was high and I played both with and against players who had earned international caps.
I spent the summers during med school in the Adirondacks working as a raft guide and whitewater kayaking so when returned to America for residency and it had to be UVM! Just before the end of residency I met my future wife, Hannah. Unfortunately, she had already matched in Western Mass so I had to leave my beloved Green Mountain State for a few years. Since I was intent on doing my own cord wood and raising ski racers, I left Vermont only on the condition that we would return. We started our family during this busy time with Trevor (2007) and Katie (2009). Once Hannah finished residency in 2012 we settled in Stowe where we have been ever since with horses, a tractor, multiple chainsaws, and kids who ski for Burke Mountain Academy