Mission Moment: Building on a Solid Foundation

Through the years, Shepherd Center has continued to live its values of family, innovation, expertise, heart, and support. Pursuing Possible: The Campaign for Shepherd Center, the most ambitious fundraising effort in the hospital’s history, would support the plans outlined in Vision 2025 to expand beds, outpatient clinics, and services not covered by insurance, add more family housing and “smart room” technology, and create the Innovation Institute and the Institute for Higher Learning. 

The expansion is part of a continuum that began around the Shepherd family kitchen table half a century ago. Just as James’s injury became a catalyst for a world-class rehabilitation center, bumps in the road along the way have turned into opportunities, always with the patients and their families in mind.

“When you think about this type of care, there’s nothing that compares to it,” says Sarah Batts, senior vice president of advancement and executive director of Shepherd Foundation. “It’s an expensive model of care, but everything from integrating mental health to recreational therapy, to housing, to outstanding food, to free parking—all those details add up.” 

Shepherd Center is built on “raw hope and brazen determination,” she says. “I say ‘raw’ hope because when people think of hope, it’s usually the greeting-card kind of hope. But this is hope when things are dark. It’s tough love. It is fierce.”

When Sarah Morrison retired in 2024, Jamie Shepherd was named CEO. He had joined the hospital board in 2012 and started work at Shepherd in 2015 after 12 years in the construction business. “I thought my maximum involvement would be boards and events and that type of thing,” he says. But when Harold learned that Jamie was leaving construction, he had his own plans for his grandson. Within a year, Jamie was at the hospital. 

Julie, whose background is in social work, came on staff in 2010, starting as a case manager after working elsewhere, most recently for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Part of that job was visiting the three multiple sclerosis centers in Georgia, including Shepherd. “Eventually, it just felt like it was time to try to come here,” she says.

In her 15 years at Shepherd Center, she has found her own way to serve the family legacy. “I think the biggest advantage I have in life is that I grew up here at Shepherd Center,” she says. “I always knew that people with disabilities are just people. You have to treat everybody the way you would want your family to be taken care of. If I can help every staff member understand that, I’ll be super successful.”

Julie’s position as head of founding family relations is new. “We’re lucky to have a lot of the same donors that we had when we were founded,” she says. “My role is reconnecting with the newer generations of those families, those companies.”

Three Generations of Shepherds 

Making her rounds, Alana Shepherd, chairman of the board, witnesses the work of half a century of grit, faith, and passion. She has lost her husband and her three children, including James, but has lived to see the third generation of her family helping to run the hospital she loves. 

Both grandchildren are well-suited to their roles, she says. Julie “is so good with patients and families, and she knows so many people.” 

As for Jamie, with Shepherd Center’s perpetual expansion, his experience in construction, along with master’s degrees in business and public health, makes him the ideal leader for the hospital, even if he weren’t part of the family, Alana says. “Anybody that we would bring in from around the country would not have the passion that he has because of the experiences he had growing up with his dad. He’s a perfect choice.” 

By watching his father channel his resolve to overcome a spinal cord injury into his life’s work on behalf of others, Jamie developed his own determination to continue the tradition of the Shepherd Center and all it means. 

“I’m a numbers guy by education,” he says, “but this place is not about numbers. This place is about improving and healing people’s lives. And so that comes first. We’ll go the extra mile to make a difference in the patients’ lives. And we’ll worry about the money on the back end.” 

Since the first conversations among Alana, Harold, and James, the Shepherd “family” has expanded to include employees—from behind-the-scenes staff to physicians, nurses, and therapists, former and current patients, their families and friends, donors, partners, and researchers. 

Fifty years in, Alana looks to the future with optimism. “The culture of the family goes on,” she says.

Written by Gayle White

This story is an excerpt from “Mission Moments: 50 Years of Rebuilding Lives One Moment at a Time,” a book celebrating Shepherd’s 50th anniversary in 2025. You can explore the full eBook or purchase a hardcover copy here.