Meet the Shepherd Center Leadership Team

Brian Barnette, CHCIO, CPHIMS, PMP, serves as a vice president and the chief information officer at Shepherd Center. In this role, Brian leads all of Shepherd Center’s information services, which includes information technology, communications, biomedical engineering and clinical informatics. Read More

Sarah L. Batts, MBA, is the executive director of the Shepherd Center Foundation, which is responsible for setting development policy and leading the fundraising and volunteer teams in support of Shepherd Center’s mission. Read More

Chet Bhasin, FACHE, MBA, MS, joined the Shepherd Center senior management team in February 2017 as chief operations officer and was promoted to the chief strategy officer role in April 2019. Before joining Shepherd Center, Chet served as the director of back/spine, orthopedics and post-acute services at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Chet provided leadership in physician relations, revenue enhancement, cost reduction, regulatory compliance and project oversight in various services and programs. Before joining Texas Health, Chet held several administrative leadership roles of increased responsibilities in Kindred Healthcare facilities in Texas and Illinois. Read More

Since 2004, Susan Bowen, RN, CCRN, CPHQ, CLNC, has enthusiastically served as the director of quality/outcomes/patient safety for Shepherd Center. She has a passion to lead the organization in reduction of patient harm through “Mindful, Evidence-Based Practice." Read More

Brock Bowman, M.D., is the associate medical director at Shepherd Center and the medical director of the Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program. Dr. Bowman is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and is subspecialty certified in spinal cord injury medicine. He has a particular interest in treating individuals who have sustained brain and spinal cord injuries concurrently. He was recently named to the Top Doctors List by U.S. News & World Report magazine. Read More

Wilma Bunch is the vice president of facility services at Shepherd Center. Since 1990, Wilma has served in various leadership positions at Shepherd Center. She began her career as a registered and licensed dietitian before transitioning to hospital management. Read More

Mitchell Fillhaber, MS, is the senior vice president of corporate development and managed care at Shepherd Center. In this role, Mitch works to create and sustain core partnerships for the hospital. He also contributes to efforts to increase patient referrals, improve payor reimbursement and enhance the hospital’s continuum of care for patients. Read More

John R. Hamilton III is the Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel at Shepherd Center. He is responsible for overseeing and managing compliance and business ethics within the organization, ensuring that Shepherd Center and its employees are complying with regulatory requirements and with internal policies and procedures and providing general legal advice. Read More

Marsha Hanson serves as the director of outpatient services. She began her career at Shepherd Center 23 years ago as a patient care technician, and served several different roles throughout the years before being promoted to her current position in October of 2019. Marsha has served as a nurse, clinical research manager, clinical research coordinator and most recently, the clinical application supervisor helping Shepherd Center implement Epic, its electronic medical record system. Read More

Steve Holleman, MBA, CPA, has served as chief financial officer of Shepherd Center since 1995. With Steve’s leadership, Shepherd Center’s revenue has grown by 436 percent, and its net assets have grown by 358 percent, in addition to providing millions of dollars per year in charity care and other unfunded services for people who have sustained spinal cord and/or brain injuries. Read More

Susan Holt is the executive assistant to Shepherd Center’s president and CEO, as well as the chief operating officer. In this role, Susan maintains daily calendars, takes telephone calls, arranges executive director’s meetings, prepares department budgets and handles financial requests. Read More

Lorie Hutcheson is the vice president of human resources at Shepherd Center. In this role, Lorie is responsible for creating innovative ways to engage all employees and for establishing the culture, systems and training that develop leaders and empower employees to solve problems and focus on fully supporting the hospital’s patients. Read More

Jacqueline Jones, RN, CCM, BSN, MM, is the director of Admissions and Case Management at Shepherd Center. In this position, Jacqueline works across departments to ensure the coordination of services to provide patients with high quality, comprehensive and focused services that improve care, quality of life and financial outcomes. Read More

Michael L. Jones, Ph.D., FACRM, is vice president of clincial research and assistive technology at Shepherd Center, and founding director of the Center’s Virginia C. Crawford Research Institute. He also oversees Shepherd’s Assistive Technology Center and Noble Learning Resource Center, and is co-director of the Livewell RERC for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Access, a partnership between Shepherd Center, Duke University and Northeastern University. Read More

Tammy King, RN, MSN, ET, CRRN, CCM, is the chief nursing officer at Shepherd Center. Tammy has served in various roles at Shepherd Center, including program director of the Marcus Community Bridge Program, ShepherdCare case management, urology manager, clinical nurse specialist, special projects nurse, acting nurse manager and clinical staff coordinator. Read More

Shari McDowell, PT, DPT, is the program director for the Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program at Shepherd Center. Since 1992, Shari has served in various leadership roles at Shepherd Center, including serving as a physical therapist in the Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Program and in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a physical therapy and SCI education coordinator, and as the inpatient spinal cord injury program manager. Read More

Katie Metzger, OTR, MBA, joined Shepherd Center in May 2019 as the director of brain injury services at Shepherd Center. Metzger provides leadership for Shepherd Center’s inpatient brain injury and stroke units, as well as Shepherd Pathways, Shepherd Center’s comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation program for people recovering from brain injury. Read More

Sarah A. Morrison, PT, MBA, MHA, is president and CEO of Shepherd Center. Since 1984, Sarah has served in various leadership roles at Shepherd Center, including vice president of clinical services, director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program, director of the medical/surgical and ICU programs, manager of the spinal cord injury day program, a physical therapy supervisor and a physical therapist. Read More

Joe Nowicki joined Shepherd Center in October of 2019 as the associate vice president of facility services. In this role, Nowicki leads, coordinates and oversees engineering, transportation, security and construction for all Shepherd Center properties. Prior to joining Shepherd Center, he served as administrator of the environment of care and facilities operations at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. Read More

Jamie Shepherd, MBA, MHA, is the chief operating officer at Shepherd Center. Jamie, the son of Shepherd Center co-founder James H. Shepherd, Jr., has followed in his family’s footsteps by contributing to Shepherd Center’s mission of helping people with a temporary or permanent disability caused by injury or disease, rebuild their lives with hope, independence and dignity. Read More

James H. Shepherd, Jr., is the chairman of the Board of Directors, chief of staff and a co-founder of Shepherd Center. He co-founded Shepherd Center in 1975 with his parents, Alana Shepherd and the late Harold Shepherd, and David Apple, M.D., the hospital’s first medical director. Read More