Leadership Team

Kent Hayden
President

Kent Hayden joined Pate Rehabilitation in 1991 and has served as president since 2002. He has a degree in business administration and extensive experience in the insurance industry. Kent is responsible for day-to-day administration of Pate Rehabilitation. He oversees multiple facilities in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, including the construction of a new Fort Worth campus in the city’s east corridor due to open in the spring of 2012. Kent is a strong advocate for brain injury rehabilitation in the profession and in the community at large.

Marilee Blackwell, MBA, CPA
Vice President of Business Development

Marilee, a Texas-licensed CPA, joined Pate in 2010. With more than 25 years of experience in healthcare, Marilee has worked with hundreds of small clinics on business management and planning, along with maximizing effectiveness of resources. Marilee has been published in several optometric trade journals that specialize in business management.

Richard Capriotti, Ph.D.
Vice President of Residential and Behavioral Services

Richard Capriotti, Ph.D., first worked for Pate in the early nineties as Director of Rehabilitation Services in Sarasota, Florida. He rejoined Pate in 2012 to develop residential and behavioral training programs. Dr. Capriotti is a licensed psychologist and a former intern, fellow and faculty member in the departments of Behavioral Psychology and Behavioral Biology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has 25 years of experience in behavioral programming, training, instruction and research with children and adults in both acute and post-acute brain injury rehabilitation.

Cindy Davie, MS, CCC-SLP
Vice President for Organizational Development

Cindy is a licensed speech-language pathologist with more than 30 years of experience in the field of brain injury rehabilitation. She has led cognitive rehabilitation and functional integration training. Cindy also created a post-acute residential rehab program for adolescents with acquired brain injury. She is a medical rehabilitation surveyor for the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and has more than 15 years of experience in leadership training and development with healthcare facilities.

Kier Bison, Ph.D.
Director of Program Development

A clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. Bison has worked for Pate since 1996. In addition to developing innovative programs, she educates staff, directs community outreach, and is engaged in research protocols. Dr. Bison is also involved in behavior programming, crisis prevention training, and patient consultation.

Patrick Plenger, Ph.D., ABPP
Director of Clinical Research and Development

A board-certified clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. Plenger has more than 30 years experience in assessments, treatments and directing brain injury rehabilitation programs. He has also presented numerous presentations on brain injury recovery and treatment. Dr. Plenger is currently collaborating on research with other institutions such as University of Texas Arlington, University of Texas Dallas and University of Texas Southwestern. In addition, he is leading research on brain functioning and recovery using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) at Pate.