CLASS NOTES APPLAUSE FOR ALUMNI
Comeback Kid
Hammad Aslam BS ’08
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efore getting out of bed, Hammad Aslam's routine starts with a smile. “Some people will say ‘yeah, right,’ but I really do wake up with a smile,” says Aslam BS ’08. “It’s kind of annoying how happy I am every day when I wake up.” Aslam’s sunny disposition in the morning, and really throughout the day, comes from a deep satisfaction with his job. Aslam is in the final year of a physician residency program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Spain Rehabilitation Center. He helps patients with traumatic injuries (of the spinal cord, in particular) as they strive to get back to normal—or at least adapt to a new normal. “For me, I truly feel that this is my purpose,” he says. “Helping them with what they’re going through gives me a sense of purpose.” His patients are going through one of the most difficult periods of their lives, but Aslam can be optimistic for them. He’s been there, and he knows that it can get better. In May 2009, Aslam was riding with his
family on a rainy day near Augusta. He was a newly minted UGA grad with plans to go to medical school. And then the vehicle hydroplaned and crashed into a tree. The tree fell and crushed Aslam’s body. He was in a coma for two weeks due to a severe traumatic brain injury. The crash left him with fractured ribs, punctured lungs, and a spinal cord injury that paralyzed him from the chest down. But he still had a sharp mind, his hands,
and a dream. “It seemed like I had lost almost everything, but one thing I had was that I still could be a doctor.” Before the crash, Aslam wasn’t even aware of the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation. As he worked to regain as much mobility as possible and adapt to the new reality that he could not walk again, the doctors at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta inspired his rehabilitation and the medical field he would pursue. After a year of recovery, Aslam was part of the inaugural class of the Augusta University/UGA Medical Partnership, a medical education program in Athens. “Everything that’s happened to me has helped drive me into this field,” he says. “I get such satisfaction from seeing the effect I can have on patients as they recover and improve their quality of life. It’s an incredible feeling. It’s something that I wouldn’t trade anything for.”
written by aaron hale MA '16
is married to Kristen Reittenbach, and has two sons, Nicholas and Hudson. Robert Ezekiel III BS ’01, MEd ’03 was named principal of Gaines Elementary School in Athens for the 2017-2018 school year. Brad Merry BSA ’01 of Augusta is the owner of Merry Lumber Company LLC and Everstake LLC. Laura Green Rothermel BFA ’01
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is the director of the specialty studio at WB Interiors, an interior design firm in Alpharetta. Janice Crews BMUS ’02, MM ’06 is the director of the Center of Excellence for Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Sam Mischner ABJ ’02 was promoted to chief sales officer and head of mortgage at LendingTree, an online
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loan marketplace. Shenley Rountree ABJ ’02, MAT ’09 of Sugar Hill is the director of career, technical, and agricultural education for Barrow County Schools. Andrea Barrett BBA ’03, MAT ’07 was named 2017 Teacher of the Year by the Georgia Marketing Education Association. Hamilton Johnson BBA ’03 was installed as a director for
the Georgia Bankers Association, representing Leadership GBA. Johnson is the vice president and loan officer at Durden Banking Company in Swainsboro. Emily Robinson AB ’03, MEd ’05 was selected as a TLab scholar by the English-Speaking Union of the United States and studied at Oxford University. Stacey Suber-Drake BS ’03,