Top Shepherd Center Stories of 2025
As we approach a new year, here is a recap of some of our top newsroom stories of 2025.
In 2025, we celebrated 50 years of Shepherd Center — and with it, 50 years of incredible stories from patients who have started amazing new chapters in their lives. As the year draws to a close, here are some of the stories you loved the most.
We look forward to sharing more stories of hope, humor, and hard work with you next year and for the next 50 years and beyond!
1. Mission Moment: Finding Beauty
While Stacy Williams participated in rehabilitation at Shepherd Center, her husband Zach found some comfort in music.
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.
Ten years after Price Woodward survived a stroke, he and his wife, Tammy, reflect on their journey.
3. A New Life in Knoxville: Former Patient Joins College Baseball Team
Grayson Pope's journey from TBI rehabilitation to attending the University of Tennessee
4. Back to Designing After a Concussion
Jewelry designer Elizabeth Newton found the support she needed at Shepherd’s Complex Concussion Unit
Recreational therapist Jacob Carenbauer, CTRS, loves helping patients get out in the community and back to the activities they love.
For more than a decade after her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis, Kristine Werner Ozug has advocated on behalf of the MS community.
7. Wife, Caregiver, Drill Sergeant, Teammate
Heather Millican shares a caregiver’s perspective on her early days at Shepherd Center with her husband, Jeff.
8. Rehabilitation Rewired: The Hulse Spinal Cord Injury Lab
In the Hulse Spinal Cord Injury Lab, Electrical Stimulation Is Making Waves
9. U.S. News & World Report Names Shepherd Center Among Best Hospitals for 2025-2026 in Rehabilitation
Since 2008, Shepherd Center has been ranked among the top rehabilitation hospitals.
10. Finding New Frontiers: Celebrating the Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation
Deborah Backus gives a tour of the James M. Cox Innovation Institute on the top floor of the Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation
11. A New Outlook
After SHARE’s Russell Gore, M.D, questioned Dylan Sims' early-onset dementia diagnosis, Dylan's life changed for the better.
12. Marking 50 Years of Milestones
Shepherd Center Anniversary Traditions Delight Patients, Staff, and Supporters
With five decades of experience, Shepherd Center provides world-class clinical care, research, and family support for people experiencing the most complex conditions, including spinal cord and brain injuries, multi-trauma, traumatic amputations, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and pain. An elite center ranked by U.S. News as one of the nation’s top hospitals for rehabilitation, Shepherd Center is also recognized as both Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems. Shepherd Center treats thousands of patients annually with unmatched expertise and unwavering compassion to help them begin again.