Mission Moment: The Road Ahead

To ensure the best possible outcomes for patients, Shepherd Center must continue to deliver—and grow—all the donor-funded programs that it believes are essential for recovery and return to living. Programs like recreation therapy, extensive family training, assistive technology, back-to-school programs, patient outings, and peer support add immeasurable value to Shepherd’s superlative clinical care. 

And Shepherd Center’s new Institute of Higher Learning, which offers medical and psychology fellowships, is an important step in fostering the next generation of neurorehabilitation experts, says Chief Medical Officer Michael Yochelson, M.D. Shepherd currently hosts fellowships in spinal cord injury medicine and brain injury medicine, neuropsychology, rehabilitation psychology, and speech-language pathology, among others. “The clinical work being done here is so exceptional, and the volume of patients we have in all these different areas is so much higher than most other places, to be able to train at a place like Shepherd is really important. We know we can’t provide these services to every patient who needs them. But we can train people to go out into the world, whether to rural areas or another city, and help provide better care.” 

Chief Nursing Officer Tiffany LeCroy, MSN, RN, CRRN, FNP-C, ACNS-BC, FARN, also keeps an eye on the future, making it a priority to manage potential nursing shortages—an industry-wide problem since COVID-19—by developing and maintaining pipelines with local universities. “We’re doing a lot more to get students here earlier, as sophomores rather than juniors,” Tiffany says. “We have a lot of partnerships with universities to host our team members as clinical instructors. In 2024, we got funding through the Shepherd Impact Council to offer nursing scholarships. 

“We’re doing a lot of things to help support the new nurses,” she adds. “Yes, it’s to help Shepherd, but it’s also to help the community. We’re all in this together.”

Written by Teresa Weaver

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.