About Us

Vision and Mission

Vision

A world in which all people living with spinal cord injuries have the freedom to thrive

Mission:

To propel individuals living with spinal cord injuries on their path to a fully actualized, more independent life through immersive programming and community support.

Focus

Empower SCI is a residential program catered to individuals who have had an injury to their spinal cord. The program focuses on peer mentoring, rehabilitation counseling, and informal knowledge-sharing between individuals who are going through similar experiences and challenges in addition to formal physical therapy, occupational therapy, and recreational therapy. The yearly program consists of a combination of individual and group therapy sessions. Each program caters to the unique needs of the client. The Empower SCI team utilizes client-developed goals to maximize the client’s ability to lead a happier, more meaningful, and more independent life. Empower SCI’s focus is to allow individuals with spinal cord injuries the opportunity to participate in successful rehabilitation at a time in their lives where they are motivated, healed (both mentally and orthopedically), and have the potential to succeed. Empower SCI also runs wheelchair skills courses throughout the United States.

History And Purpose

Empower Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) fills a gap in the current rehabilitation model. Traditionally, rehabilitation ceases only a few months after injury. Often this period is fraught with medical co-morbidities, emotional despair, and focus on survival; this makes it difficult to work toward a purposeful future. Empower SCI’s Summer Residential Rehabilitation Program impacts individuals who are at least one-year post-injury when rehabilitation benefits have been exhausted and provide them the tools to return to a meaningful life.

Over the past 50 years, rehabilitation services have drastically decreased for individuals who have sustained a spinal cord injury. Days hospitalized in the acute care unit have declined from 24 days in the 1970s to 11 days in 2010; days in rehabilitation units have declined from 98 to 36 days. The shorter length of stays, and numerous complicating factors during inpatient rehabilitation, can negatively impact an individual’s traditional in-patient rehabilitation experience. Empower SCI’s Summer Residential Rehabilitation Programs provides a unique rehabilitation experience offered over 1 year following an injury at a time when the individual is ready to capitalize on change. In traditional rehabilitation, the individual learns survival strategies needed for the transition to home; at Empower SCI, individuals are ready to expand their knowledge and seek out ways to overcome the barriers to living a happy, meaningful life.

The three founders of Empower SCI, Carrie Callahan, Jessica Goodine, and Elizabeth Lima Remillard met in 2010 and began to lay the groundwork for Empower SCI soon after. The program began to take shape, and Empower SCI incorporated and quickly hosted a successful pilot program in July of 2012 at Stony Brook University in NY. The Stony Brook program has since established itself as Empower’s flagship program. The summer of 2019 marked another milestone, with the launch of the Missoula, Montana-based summer program at the University of Montana. Since the summer of 2012, Empower has served over 100 individuals with spinal cord injuries and has thrived through the service of over 500 volunteers.

In August of 2024, Empower SCI will launch a third residential summer program, specific to young adults with spinal cord injury. The program will be open to individuals 14-22 with spinal cord injury, who are looking to make connections, gain independence and autonomy, and find meaning in life. It will be an excellent opportunity to “try on” college life for a week, while on the campus of New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich, RI.

Meet the Team

  • Carrie Callahan, DPT, ATP

    President and Co-Founder of EmpowerSCI Inc - Certified Physical Therapist

    Carrie loves seeking adventures and helping others adapt to create their own. From snowboarding to surfing to cycling, she loves to be outside in nature with others. She is passionate about spinal cord injury rehabilitation, and has specialized in seating and positioning for athletes and individuals with spinal cord injuries. With over 20 years of experience working in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, her favorite tasks to assist with is functional mobility for the C5-C6 level of injury, and teaching both manual and power wheelchair skills. At Empower, Carrie is the forever optimist with her head in her clouds and depends on Jess and Liz to keep her grounded in reality and moving forward with passion. At home, Carrie spends a good deal of her time wrangling her toddler, Caida, as a single mom by choice.

  • Jessica Goodine, PT, NCS 

    Clerk and Co-Founder of Empower SCI Inc - Certified Physical Therapist

    Jess is a Mother first and foremost, a Vermonter at heart and is dedicated to assuring EmpowerSCI remains organized and sustainable for the years to come. She devoted the majority of her adult life to her career, practicing adult neurological physical therapy in multiple facets and across the United States. She spent 6 of her 15 years as a physical therapist serving our country’s war wounded at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington DC, and it was here that she realized her potential to dream big, live optimally and lead. Motherhood has shifted her career path, but in that she has refined her role as a leader and is able to add new prospective to her gift of organization and programming. When Jess isn’t running after her vibrant, miracle of a toddler Owen, you’ll simply find her outside chasing the New England sunshine.

  • Elizabeth Lima Remillard, MS, OTR/L

    Treasurer and Co-Founder of Empower SCI Inc - Certified Occupational Therapist

    Liz, better known as "Lima," is a lifelong Rhode Islander strongly rooted in her Portuguese heritage. She is a devoted wife and busy mother of three to Sam, Sloane, and Lorelai. Despite this, Liz is generous with her time and regularly squeezes extra minutes out of the day to help those around her advance. She is never short of laughter or a well-timed joke. This positive energy has been central to her fourteen-year career as an Occupational Therapist in neurorehabilitation and more recently as a professor of Occupational Therapy. Liz flourishes in community-based environments like Empower SCI where she can put a fresh spin on Occupational Therapy services. She inspires her students to do the same, seeing themselves as social entrepreneurs with the skills to level up clients’ lives. In spare moments, she can be found outside appreciating Ocean State water views, tackling home renovations, or indulging her sweet tooth.  

  • Stephanie Romano, PT, DPT, NCS

    Assistant Director of Empower SCI Inc- Certified Physical Therapist

    Stephanie has been with Empower SCI since being a physical therapy student and volunteering as a residential aide. Fast forward 8 years- Stephanie now serves as Assistant Director of the program. Stephanie currently works in New York City and has a passion for working with individuals with neurological diagnoses. She is known for proudly wearing her Empower gear as she travels around the world. When not at work or traveling, Stephanie can be found enjoying NYC’s finest pizza slices.

  • Matty Bremekamp, OGPM

    Lead Peer Mentor

    Since his spinal cord injury at age 21, Matty B has been an avid peer mentor determined to help guide the newly injured to reclaim the joy in their lives that so often feels ripped away post spinal cord injury. He has worked extensively with the disability community, specializing in mentorship and adaptive athletics for the past 15 years. His wide array of interests has led him to adapt many hobbies and activities over the years for himself or others, when he's not busy driving across the country, he's scouring Reddit for that next critical life hack.

  • Director of Strategic Development

    Tim Brown

    Director of Strategic Development

    Tim loves travel, adventure, and time outdoors with friends and family. If he is not doing one or all of these, he is charting the next opportunity. Paralyzed in an accident while working as a ski patroller in Colorado in 2011, Tim is continually on his journey of acceptance and growth as a quadriplegic with a C4/C5 spinal cord injury. Following his accident, Tim earned a Masters in Sustainability and joined Solstice, an early-stage startup where he successfully built the Customer Success department. He attended the first Empower SCI program at Stony Brook University in 2012 - a pivotal experience that set him on the path to a fully actualized life with disability. Tim brings both his personal and professional experience to Empower with a focus on strategic business initiatives and development to help many more people experience the Empower magic. He is also the producer and host of The Unexpected Journey, a podcast that shares the stories of adaptive athletes, disability activists, creators, and others from the disability community

  • Dr. Gabrielle Ficchi, PhD, LPC, CRC

    Director of Teen Program and Rehab Counselor at Summer Programs