It’s something patients, families, staff, volunteers, and visitors feel from the moment they pull in the driveway: Hope is Here.

Over the last five decades, Shepherd Center has grown from a six-bed hospital specializing in spinal cord injury care into the premier neurorehabilitation facility of the Southeast, offering state-of-the-art care for patients experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. This care, in addition to the support we offer patient families and our staff, defines our mission.

In our 2026 Annual Report: Hope is Here, you’ll see how our incredible inpatient rehabilitation programs, community-based outpatient services, and research and innovation teams support patients and their families, allowing them to return to what they love with independence and dignity. You’ll also find the remarkable progress achieved through Pursuing Possible: The Campaign for Shepherd Center, and updates on the hospital renovations that will allow us to care for more patients in the years to come.

The full report is available for download here.

But psychological testing doesn’t always ensure fair and accurate results, especially for racially diverse patients.

“The primary issue is that most psychological tests were developed and normed on Caucasian populations, so they don’t really apply as well to non-Caucasians,” says Brick Johnstone, Ph.D., the O.Wayne Rollins Director of Brain Injury Research at Shepherd Center.

So, Johnstone, along with other researchers, worked on a study to show another way of evaluating patients, without relying on normed data. The study was published in the January 2026 edition of the journal Brain Injury. Working with the study’s lead author, Gary James, Ph.D., Johnstone and other researchers developed a method of evaluating patients’ severity of brain injury based on the individual’s estimated level of function pre-injury (such as their own reading score), rather than comparing results to normed data (i.e., a potentially inappropriate reference group).

Shepherd Pathways rehabilitation counselor Tim Riggins, LCSW, and brain injury research program manager Nicole Thompson, MPH, also worked on the study. Using data from 239 patients with brain injuries at Shepherd, the study examined the team’s method of neuropsychological evaluation. White patients and Black patients differed on some of the absolute scores (e.g.,IQ, memory, attention), but the study shows that when comparing someone’s post-injury function to their pre-injury function, the results were similar across the board (i.e., White and Black individuals had similar rates of mild, moderate, and severe impairment).

“These results further support the fact that people of different racial backgrounds — they all experience brain injury in a similar manner,” Johnstone says. “So, we’re really trying to indicate that there are different ways to look at data, to interpret it, and we think this is the most appropriate way to do it fairly.”

Riggins says that while neuropsychological testing doesn’t stand alone in the rehabilitation process, it can inform the treatment opportunities a patient receives. As a rehabilitation counselor, Riggins supports patients in managing the personal, social, and psychological effects of their brain injury on their goals of returning to employment, school, or independent living.

“When it comes to return to work potential, [patients] go through neuropsych testing to assess their readiness for return to work and potential accommodations that are necessary,” he says. “So, the outcomes of the testing directly influence their goals for their recovery ...[and] if they're not able to return to work, if the report doesn't support disability, it could make it more difficult for them to receive benefits they need to support themselves.”

Riggins says the research results were validating, acknowledging that while racial bias is often present in traditional testing, there are different ways to evaluate patients in order to help them achieve better outcomes. That philosophy — helping patients achieve the best possible recovery — drives much of brain injury research at Shepherd, Johnstone says.

“Our brain injury research is really focused on improving community outcomes. We want to make sure that the services we provide, the research we do, is helping people successfully reintegrate into their community or to get jobs ... we're just trying to help all of our patients from many diverse backgrounds.”

Written by Erin Kenney

Interested in participating in research at Shepherd Center? Find actively recruiting studies here.

Over the last five decades, Shepherd Center has evolved from a six-bed hospital specializing in spinal cord injury care into the premier neurorehabilitation facility of the Southeast, offering state-of-the-art care for patients experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. 

The FY25 Annual Report: On a Mission showcases how Shepherd staff members, patients and families, and supporters are on a mission — to provide top-notch care, return to their communities and what they love most, and to support the recovery of current and future patients. The report also details the past year’s achievements and progress, including new buildings and renovations to Shepherd’s existing facilities, as well as other milestones achieved in Pursuing Possible: The Campaign for Shepherd Center.

The full report is available for download here.  

Shepherd Center announced that Mariana Volpini Gattegno, MPH, CPHQ, CLSSBB, has joined the organization as director of quality and outcomes management. In her new role, Gattegno will oversee process improvement initiatives throughout the hospital and serve as Shepherd’s patient safety officer. She will also lead efforts to ensure conformance with The Joint Commission and CARF accreditation standards.

“We’re thrilled to have Mariana join the Shepherd team,” said Shari McDowell, PT, DPT, FASIA, FACHE, chief operating officer of Shepherd Center. “Her expertise and experience will further enhance the Quality department, supporting our mission to create extraordinary outcomes for our patients.”

Gattegno comes to Shepherd Center from Wellstar Cobb Medical Center, where she served as the assistant vice president of quality and safety, providing oversight for all quality and safety operations for the 418-bed acute care hospital. Before serving at Wellstar Cobb, Gattegno held various quality, safety, and performance improvement leadership roles at Wellstar Health System and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. Gattegno earned her master’s in public health with a concentration in epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. She is a certified black belt in quality process improvement and a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ).

“For as long as I have lived and worked in Atlanta, I have admired Shepherd Center’s reputation for compassionate, patient-centered care,” Gattegno said. “When the opportunity arose to join this organization, I knew it was the perfect fit for me. The hospital’s dedication to improving patients’ quality of life, supporting families, and fostering an exceptional work environment strongly aligns with my values. I am truly excited to contribute to Shepherd Center’s mission and make a meaningful impact in our community.”

Leading the new program is Ginger Martin, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, CCM, a long-time member of Shepherd Center’s former Marcus Community Bridge Program, which ended in 2012. The Transition Support Program emphasizes patients’ medical, health and safety issues following discharge.

“A major objective of the program is to prevent rehospitalization, which is emphasized in the federal Affordable Care Act, and to keep our patients healthy and safe at home,” Martin said. The new program is being funded through Shepherd Center operational dollars.

Martin and her staff are seeking grants to expand program services in the future. Also, the program will benefit from recent funding Shepherd Center received from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) for the project “A Patient-Centered Approach to Successful Community Transition After Catastrophic Injury.” This project is evaluating the impact of several systems changes aimed at minimizing hospital readmissions and focuses on revising Shepherd Center’s discharge planning and post-discharge supports for patients and families. 

Giving it an edge already, the Transition Support Program is staffed with employees experienced in meeting the needs of Shepherd’s patients as they return to their homes and communities, Martin said.

Transition support coordinators accomplish the program’s mission through a combination of phone calls, tele-health sessions and home visits with patients. They work with patients and their families to develop person-centered plans to manage disability and medical issues. Topics they address include medication management, safety and fall prevention, physician follow-up appointments, health record management, and schedule and routine management.

This part of the program serves people referred by their Shepherd Center treatment team and deemed at high risk for rehospitalization and/or those who face socioeconomic challenges and/or limited family support.

Meanwhile, the Transition Support Program’s peer support staff members are reaching out to Shepherd Center inpatients. They are increasing peer mentoring and education for inpatients on both a one-on-one and classroom basis. Classes focus on topics including self-advocacy and disability management. Peer supporters will soon launch a Facebook page to give former patients with spinal cord injury a forum to offer insight to one another.

Also, the program’s vocational services staff is helping patients who are referred by their treatment team because of their plans to return to work or post-secondary education.

The Transition Support Program, which is overseen by Sarah Morrison, vice president of clinical services, is working with departments throughout the hospital to accomplish its mission. Already, staff members have collaborated with spinal cord and brain injury educators and public relations staffers to develop training and educational videos for use with inpatients, as well as patients who have discharged from the hospital. This information is housed on a new educational website at MyShepherdConnection.org, which launched in spring 2013.