On Saturday, March 23rd, San Diego College of Continuing Education raised a record-breaking $30,234 at the 2024 surviveHEADSTRONG Walk and Health Fair, a fundraiser hosted by the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation. The college body joined together under the name, “Team ABI” at Mission Bay’s DeAnza Cove. Newly-retired Professor Heike Kessler-Heiberg formed Team Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) to partake in the event 16 years ago, and Team ABI has become a top donor, raising more than $300,000 since 2008.

Kessler-Heiberg was honored during the March 23rd walk with a plaque in front of her students, colleagues, friends, and family by President King and the College of Continuing Education in gratitude for her 35 years of service to the college and philanthropic efforts for Team ABI. 

The $30,234 raised at the surviveHEADSTRONG Walk will benefit the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation with a portion of donations going towards the College of Continuing Education’s ABI trust fund for scholarships. With the support of Dr. King, Outreach, DSPS, ABI, and the Communications and Creative Services Team, for the first-time Team ABI was represented with expanded outreach to further extend visibility to the community and scholarships were awarded to students in need to participate in the walk.

“For the second year in a row, it was an honor and a privilege to bear witness to our students, who many of them are brain injury survivors take part in the surviveHEADSTRONG Walk and to honor former Professor Heike Kessler-Heiberg for her tireless leadership,” said College of Continuing Education President Dr. Tina M. King. “We will miss Professor Kessler-Heiberg and will continue to collaborate with her and Team ABI. The partnership between SDCCE and the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation has a rich history and I am certain that we will keep the legacy strong. The future is bright for our Acquired Brain Injury program.”

“The first year Team ABI partook in the surviveHEADSTRONG Walk in 2008 we raised only $300 and had hand-drawn flyers for outreach,”  Kessler-Heiberg recalled proudly. “We are truly in awe of the support from President King and from all the departments across the district.”

In addition to leading the walk year after year as Team ABI’s Team Captain, Kessler-Heiberg advocated to expand the Acquired Brain Injury program at the College of Continuing Education 35 years ago.

Reflecting back when she first became a professor, Kessler-Heiberg shares, “I was so lucky to hear about the new adjunct teaching position at the ABI program with DSPS Continuing Education because it enabled me to expand my “group lesson plans” into full-fledged classes. ABI at that time was a single, very small class and had been established in the early 1980s as more of a social group focusing on activities of daily living and support. As a speech-language pathologist specializing in neuro-communicative disorders, I was expressly hired to redevelop the program with an emphasis on cognitive retraining, along with my colleague at the time, Dawn Stoll, a rehabilitation counselor. In 1996, I was offered my contract teaching position. When I started, ABI was a single program of a few classes with about 40 students and two teachers.  By the 2000s, we had grown to about ten teachers and four programs, with the largest one in the afternoon serving 130-150 students a semester and the other three serving 40-60 students each.”

Today the program is the only one of its kind in the nation — to provide free classes that support survivors recovering from brain trauma, stroke/aneurysm, brain tumor, brain infection and anoxia. Classes take place online and are set to return in person and in a hybrid format at the College of Continuing Education’s Mesa College campus, as well as at the Educational Cultural Complex.

“I have appreciated the autonomy that the College of Continuing Education has given us to develop this unique in the nation program and to fill this important need.  I love working with the students, and unlike my days as a therapist in rehab, I was not limited in the amount of time I had to work with a survivor and to help them achieve their potential and goals. The consistency of having the same dean, who supported and believed in us for over two decades, was also invaluable.”

As a result, students are living independently and going back to college and to work.

Prior to Kessler-Heiberg’s arrival at the College of Continuing Education, she worked as a speech-language pathologist for Sharp Hospital specializing in cognitive retraining. Teaching brain injury survivors is her life’s work. “I worked in almost every setting treating brain injury survivors at that point: ICU, in-patient rehab, out-patient rehab, residential facilities, home health, private practice, and most recently, in a new program called Day Treatment at Sharp, which allowed me to not only treat patients 1:1, but also work with groups of survivors,” she said.

Kessler-Heiberg retired as an ABI Professor in January 2024. “I will certainly miss working with my fellow ABI teachers. We had a team that was free of any discord, passionate about teaching, and always, always put the needs of the students first.  Every decision was driven by what was best for the survivors who had to overcome so many barriers and challenges after their life-altering brain injury,” she expressed. “Above all, however, I will miss the students.  I have been fortunate in so many ways—being able to work with people over the course of many years and to really get to know them.  Much of what I’ve learned about perseverance, self-identity, and appreciating life I have learned from them. The survivors have made my professional life a joy and have enriched my personal life immensely. Some people have a job, some people have a profession, but I was lucky enough to do work of the heart.”

Although newly retired, Kessler-Heiberg is hopeful her legacy lives on. “I sincerely hope that the four ABI programs can continue with the same level of District support in terms of hiring a full-time contract person to coordinate the programs, as well as hiring teachers with the necessary areas of expertise in memory/cognitive strategies, brain anatomy, advocacy, and psycho-social support. We are often approached by members of brain injury communities in California and in other states asking how to replicate our program. Perhaps with a full time coordinator, this innovative, holistic, team-teaching approach can expand to other community colleges in the nation.  Brain injury is now regarded by the World Health Organization as a chronic condition that needs life-long management and support. In light of brain injury being the “signature” injury of military service, advances in medical technology boosting survival rates, the recognition of post-concussive syndrome, and increasingly restrictive insurance coverage, the College of Continuing Education’s ABI Programs truly provide a valuable community service in the continuum of care for brain injury.”

In addition to continuing her advocacy for brain injury survivors Kessler-Heiberg has other plans to look forward to during retirement. “Having my first grandchild come into the world almost two years ago has heightened my need for more time to spend with him—and with any future grandchildren!  After that, I have a three-page list of possible To Dos—everything from traveling to all the continents to attending classes myself and pursuing creative pursuits such as painting and sculpting,” she shares. “Retirement also includes continuing on the Board of the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation and volunteering with I Love A Clean San Diego and Friends of the Inyo to do trail maintenance—and maybe even volunteering to be a guest speaker every once in a while for ABI if they’ll have me!”

Kessler-Heiberg will continue to support Team ABI as a volunteer and serves as a San Diego Brain Injury Foundation Board Member.

For enrollment and more information about the Acquired Brain Injury, contact the college’s Disability Support Programs and Services office at 619-388-4812 to schedule an intake appointment.

Donations are still being accepted to benefit Team ABI through May 2024, to donate please visit, sdbif.org/teamabi.