Brenda Hilfrank, PT, CHT
Brenda Hilfrank is the owner and director of Vermont Hand Therapy in South Burlington, Vermont. Brenda, who opened her practice in 1990, was the first to open a private hand therapy practice in the state of Vermont. She works closely with Dr. James Mogan, an orthopedic hand surgeon with whom she shares office space. Brought together through their previous work at the University of Vermont, the two have shared a love for the treatment of upper extremity and hand injuries for the past nineteen years. Though Brenda enjoys working with patients and doctors from many different specialties, it is the collaborative effort of two hand specialists, the hand surgeon and the hand therapist, that she finds the most rewarding.

Brenda was drawn to hand therapy early in her training as a physical therapy student at Ithaca College in New York. During anatomy dissections of the arm and the hand, she became intrigued by the way moving the forearm muscles flexed the fingers through such an intricate flexor tendon system, and to this day, she continues to love studying the anatomy of the hand. As part of her physical therapy program, Brenda was able to select a fieldwork experience in hand therapy at the Hand Rehabilitation Services in New York City. It was there that her interest in hand therapy was nurtured by Karen Prendergast-Lauckhardt, PT, CHT, and Meredith Ferraro, MS, PT, CHT, as well as hand surgeons Dr. Robert Beasley and Dr. Charles Melone. Brenda enjoyed the close working relationship with the hand surgeons and the mentoring relationship of working with two experienced hand therapists, so when she finished her training she stayed on as a staff therapist for another four years.

Being from the New England area, however, it was only a matter of time, before an ad for a hand therapist in Northeast would call her home. In 1981 Brenda went to work at the University of Vermont in South Burlington, where she worked for ten years before opening her private practice.

Brenda was elected to the Hand Therapy Certification Board in 1998. Brenda served on the recertification committee for three years prior to her election to the board and continued with that committee for four more years. She also served on the Examination Committee for several years before being named vice-chair of that committee in 2002. She was appointed chair on the International Standards Task Force in 2002 and will lead that group as it develops International Certification.