Shepherd Center

A huge thank you to Atlanta United FC players Jayden Hibbert, Will Reilly, Dominik Chong Qui, Matt Edwards, Adrian Gill, and Luke Brennan for kicking it with our patients and bringing their competitive spirit to Shepherd Center.

While these phenomenal athletes are used to competing on the pitch, this time the action took place in the Tech Hub at Shepherd Center's Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation. There, they connected with patients who have recently sustained spinal cord or brain injuries and are discovering new ways to game through adaptive gaming and assistive technology.

The players showed up ready to play, laugh, and build meaningful connections with our patients, volleying up a fun-filled afternoon.

At Shepherd Center, hope isn't just found in therapy sessions. It's found in moments like these, where patients can reconnect with the activities they love, explore new possibilities through technology, and spend time with people who remind them that life after injury can still be full of joy.

A special thank you to Lindsey Liber, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, speech-language pathologist with the Center for Assistive Technologies, for organizing this event, and to Atlanta United for making it such a memorable day for our patients.

Hope is here, and sometimes it looks like a little friendly competition.

Maggie Hicks, 62, lives in Lawley, a small community in central Alabama. She was at home when she experienced a spinal stroke, a type of stroke that often happens because of an injury, but not in Maggie’s case.

“It just happened. Within 30 minutes, I had lost all sensation from the waist down,” she says. The stroke resulted in a spinal cord injury (SCI).

After more than a week at Grandview Medical Center Birmingham, AL, Maggie transferred to Shepherd Center’s Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program in January 2025.

She says she was impressed with Shepherd from the moment she arrived.

“When I got out of the ambulance and rolled into Shepherd, [Shepherd Center co-founder] Mrs. Shepherd was there,” she recalls. “She’s at the door. And that impressed me, to know that she took to heart what was going on in the facility.”

Then, when she was in her room, all the nurses, doctors, and evaluators started coming in, and she knew she was in the right place. The care team started focusing on helping her achieve her goals: getting back to being independent, back home, back at church, and back at work at the Alabama State Department of Education, where she is the student assessment coordinator.

She worked with her therapists to strengthen both her lower body and her upper body, which allowed her to use a manual wheelchair.

Her husband and son would come while she was rehabbing, staying in Shepherd Center’s donor-funded family housing, when time permitted. When she began the day program, she and her husband stayed together in housing.

“It was wonderful to have someone who has set up the facilities so that they weren't having to pay or find a place to stay. Because that is very stressful — trying to get across town or … into that traffic,” she says.

While in the SCI Day Program, Maggie worked with a vocational rehabilitation counselor to develop a return-to-work strategy. She went on a field trip to an office building to think through any accommodations she might need to return to work using her wheelchair.

“That's where they kept emphasizing, ‘You're going to have to have a conversation with your employer to find out what's going on, how you're going to be able to adapt to your environment when you go back to work,’” she says.

After three months of rehabilitation, Maggie returned home with her husband. She has returned to work with a hybrid schedule. She drives to the office three days a week in an adapted van and works from home two days a week, which allows her to attend physical therapy close to home. She has gained more sensation in her legs and has been able to take some steps using a walker and a knee brace.

We were honored to celebrate the naming of the Rollins Acquired Brain Injury Program and to welcome the Rollins family to Shepherd Center for this special occasion.

Their generosity will have an impact far beyond a single program or a single moment in a patient's recovery. The Rollins family's support is helping Shepherd Center continue to innovate, expand access to specialized care, and provide hope to individuals and families navigating life after brain injury.

To the Rollins family, thank you for your partnership and commitment to our patients. We are grateful for the opportunity to celebrate this meaningful moment with you and for the difference your support will make for years to come.

Recently, Joshua Morris, a captain with the Lawrenceville Police Department, celebrated two important milestones: his discharge from inpatient rehabilitation at Shepherd Center and his birthday.

To mark the occasion, officers from the City of Atlanta Police Department, Brookhaven, GA Police Department, and Lawrenceville Police Department came together to recognize the occasion. The celebration included remarks from the Lawrenceville Chief of Police, who thanked APD and Shepherd Center for supporting Joshua throughout his recovery, as well as a birthday cake made possible by fellow officers.

Joshua took time to thank the many people who have helped him along the way, including Jamie Shepherd, Shepherd Center president and CEO, Chaplain Ben Rose, Elliott Scott, charge nurse in the Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program, the Lawrenceville Police Department, and the many officers who showed up for him during his rehabilitation journey.

By his side were his wife, Alaina, and their two children, who helped hand out cake to the officers and guests who came to celebrate.

At Shepherd Center, we’re honored to support those who dedicate their lives to protect us.

MaryGrace Guzzino comes alive when she's in the water.

“I love everything about swimming,” says the senior on the Georgia Tech Swimming & Diving team.

So, when swimming was taken away from MaryGrace — due to a pair of concussions she sustained in “freak accidents” in the water in 2025 — the pain wasn’t relegated to her brain alone. Thankfully, MaryGrace landed at Shepherd Center’s Complex Concussion Clinic (CCC). CCC offers fully integrated, multidisciplinary treatment for patients whose concussions have produced more complicated, persistent symptoms.

The clinic is led by founding director Russell Gore, M.D., an expert in neurotrauma with significant experience working with athletes. In fact, this past summer, Dr. Gore served as a concussion consultant and advisor for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket himself, he is an associate professor in the Walter H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

“Dr. Gore and the whole care team understood how frustrated I was with the symptoms and how hard it was to not be swimming,” MaryGrace says. “I felt like I was really being taken care of, just fully supported.”

Her care included testing, treatments, and exercises to directly address symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision, fatigue, and light sensitivity. MaryGrace also participated in physical therapy and speech therapy to address cognitive issues that were making her academic life more difficult, as well.

“I was kind of re-learning how to do school,” MaryGrace says.

For the better part of a year, she was fully away from the sport. The absence was painful, but her body was healing. Gradually, things improved. As she could get back in the water again and start training more, her mental health strengthened along with her physical health.

“Being at Shepherd Center and going through this, it sounds so cliché, but it really did make me so much more mentally strong,” MaryGrace shares. “Those mental exercises from the clinic carry over to the pool.”

Starting with her senior year this fall, she’ll have two seasons of eligibility left at Georgia Tech. She plans to get her master’s degree during that extra year and consider what comes next after college.

One thing she’s sure of: Swimming will always be part of her life.

“Oh, I’ll keep swimming forever!” MaryGrace says. “I’ve realized that all over again this past year. I’ve also learned more about resilience. This has all just reinforced for me that even the craziest setbacks can make you come back even stronger."

“Oh, that was tasty. Very good.”

For Tom Elkin, those words represented much more than lunch.

After sustaining a spinal cord injury in a cycling accident, Tom completed 10 weeks in Shepherd Center's inpatient Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program and is now in his third week of the SCI Day Program. With his wife, Norma Elkin, by his side, Tom recently worked with occupational therapist Marie Alexander, MSOT, OTR/L, on a meaningful goal: feeding himself.

Using a 3D-printed universal cuff, a bent fork designed to give him a better angle, and a mobile arm support attached to his wheelchair, Tom focused on baked chicken, mac and cheese, and roasted cauliflower.

"The trick is the right position to both get the food and bring it up, and be able to eat it," Tom says.

The process required problem-solving, patience, and practice. Sometimes the food slid off the fork. Sometimes the angle wasn't quite right. But Tom approached the task with determination and humor, while Norma and Marie offered encouragement and troubleshooting tips.

"As my mobility gets better, strength gets better in this right arm; this should become easier," Tom says. "But I'm happy to work on it at this phase, because I won't get stronger if I don't."

Marie agrees but reminds him it's about more than strength.

"It's also coordination, learning how to turn on which muscles, when."

Since beginning the Day Program, Tom and Norma have made the drive from Kennesaw every weekday. Together, they've learned countless ways to adapt daily life, and both credit Shepherd's team approach for helping them prepare for life at home.

"I love the combined approach that Shepherd gives you," Tom says. "An occupational therapist, physical therapist, a rec therapist, speech therapist, and it's asking me, 'What do you need? What are your goals?' My goals are to get stronger, get where I can do more things for myself, get where she doesn't have to do as much for me."

Married for more than 40 years, Tom and Norma have tackled every challenge as a team.

As Tom puts it, "I am a lucky person, that I got my wife Norma as my caregiver."

By the end of lunch, after a few adjustments, a lot of persistence, and plenty of encouragement, Tom got a full bite.

Success.

Marine 1st Sgt. Mark Koerner seemingly had everything — a loving wife, two young children, and an accomplished career in the Marine Corps — even as he fought an invisible battle every day.

“My symptoms just kept getting worse...[I didn’t] understand what was going on with me,” he said.

He often felt distracted. He started overusing alcohol and gaining weight. He did what he could to change things—seeing behavioral health specialists at the Naval Hospital, and quitting drinking. But a bad relapse pushed him over the edge.

After speaking with a friend, he contacted the SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center, a comprehensive rehabilitation program for veterans, service members, and first responders with traumatic brain injuries and mental health concerns.

“It just seemed like the next logical step for me to continue getting the help that I needed before I took that giant leap and hung up the uniform.”

Mark was surprised when he was allowed to have input in his treatment plan. It was difficult for him, but, like everything else he’d done in life, he committed. He had made sacrifices to be there—leaving behind his family and his unit—so he gave it his all.

“I was able to come back and face life...my ability to manage them was almost effortless compared to how I felt prior to SHARE,” he said.

For Mark, it was the combination of everything the program offered—memory exercises, recreation therapy outings, Wednesday night cookouts, staying in the apartments with his peers, and the genuine kindness of the program staff—that saved him.

When he returned to his Marine unit, he explained to his soldiers where he had been and why he had left.

“I had a lot of Marines wanting to talk to me because they were going through things that were very similar to what I was going through," he said.

In 2024, Mark retired from the Marines after 20 years of service. He and his family now live in Ohio, where he says he can be more present than ever.

“When I'm home, I can be present with the boys. I'm not wrestling with all the distractions, many of them self-made, that I once was,” he says.

If you've met Deontae “Tae” Davis, you know he's rarely without a smile, a joke, or a conversation. The 23-year-old from Montgomery, Alabama, rolls into Shepherd Center's Spinal Cord Injury Day Program gym with what his therapists describe as “the gift of gab,” chatting with fellow patients before getting to work.

After completing 10 weeks in Shepherd Center's inpatient Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program, Tae is now taking on new challenges in the Day Program with Heather Jones, DPT. On this day, they're working on transfers, first from his wheelchair to the floor and back again, then progressing to transfers into an SUV.

What may look simple is anything but. Every transfer requires careful positioning, timing, balance, and problem-solving. As Heather reminds him, “Don't let go [of the wheelchair] with your right arm.” Together, they experiment with different setups, trying to figure out what works best for Tae.

"There are a lot of different ways you can set up, so it's figuring out what's best for each person," Heather says.

After making a few adjustments, Tae can tell the difference immediately.

"It was way better," he says. "I was able to get my arm up faster."

Not every attempt is perfect. At one point, he loses his balance and has to catch himself.

"I had launched myself so far. I had to catch myself with my left hand. I was gonna fall hard on my bo**ie," he laughs.

But Tae keeps working, refining his technique and repeating the movement until he can smoothly transfer to the floor.

With floor transfers feeling solid, it's time for the next challenge: a mid-size SUV in Shepherd Center's parking deck.

"Ooh, SUV," Tae says, clearly ready for the challenge.

Heather guides him through the process, allowing him to problem-solve along the way.

"As long as it's safe and it's not dangerous, we'll try just about any method they want," she explains. "I'll let them try stuff, and then I'll give my feedback."

Tae quickly masters the SUV transfer and is eager for more. Soon, he's taking on what he calls “the beast”—a Yukon Denali with a much higher seat.

Despite the increased difficulty, Tae remains undaunted.

"He's making this look really easy," Heather says. "It's not an easy transfer."

That's when Tae shares the lesson he's learned through rehabilitation:

"I found the technique. It's really technique, for real, with everything … You do need a little upper strength, I can tell you that. But, hey, technique is all that's key."

"That makes this PT's heart very happy," Heather replies. "Strength is great, but technique is key."

For Tae, these sessions are about more than transfers. They're about building confidence for everyday life. One day, he'd like to create videos to teach others what he's learned throughout his rehabilitation.

"I can teach people how to do it the right way, instead of doing it the wrong way," he says. "When I get this down pat ... that makes me happy."

Every transfer is a reminder that with the right technique, hope is always in reach.

Twenty-five years ago on September 11, 2001, we witnessed extraordinary courage in the face of tragedy. Countless first responders and everyday heroes stepped up without hesitation, putting others' lives before their own.

Today, we remember those who lost their lives. We honor the first responders and community members who ran toward danger to help those in need. And we reflect on the strength, sacrifice, and resilience that emerged from one of our nation's darkest days.

May we never forget their service, their courage, and the lives forever changed on September 11.

#911

As a child growing up in Brookhaven, Ryan Means dreamed of military service. His brother, Michael, remembers digging foxholes in the backyard, watching military movies, and Ryan even writing to the Marine Corps at 7 years old because he wanted to enlist.

But it was the loss of his childhood best friend, Adam White, in the September 11 attacks that ultimately led Ryan to join the Army at age 31.

"Ryan kind of had this tough attitude throughout his life," Michael says. "He always liked a challenge. He loved the history of the United States. I think it was kind of in his DNA."

Ryan completed basic training, Airborne School, and Special Forces training, eventually rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant and Green Beret. While deployed to Iraq in 2009, he was diagnosed with a rare liver cancer and returned home for treatment. Though he fought with determination, Ryan passed away later that year, leaving behind his wife, Heather, and their two daughters.

For Heather, Ryan's story will always be intertwined with September 11.

“If 9/11 wouldn't have happened, I never would have met Ryan. I wouldn't have my children … Everything changed because of 9/11. So, that event changed my life."

Now in its 15th year, the Ryan Patman Means (RPM) 9/11 5K continues to honor Ryan's service and the friend whose loss inspired him to serve. This tradition brings together hundreds of people each year. Over the years, the event has raised nearly $2.5 million in support of Shepherd Center.

Proceeds benefit the SHARE Military Initiative, helping veterans, service members, and first responders receive world-class care for traumatic brain injury and mental health concerns.

Join us as we remember Ryan Means, honor those affected by 9/11, and support those whose lives continue to be changed through recovery and rehabilitation.

This story was first posted on CBS Atlanta

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