In Memorium

1972 — 2025

Shanna Dawn Jackson, 53, passed away peacefully at Emory Hospital with her wife and parents by her side. Shanna was born in Houston, Texas to Linda and Travis Jackson, MD. She moved from Texas to Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of three. Shanna was an exceptional athlete – playing soccer in high school as well as college. She graduated from Guilford College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. Shanna then served as an undercover Special Agent in North Georgia for several years before ultimately resigning to follow her true passion in psychology. She received her Masters degree in Professional Counseling before moving on to Fielding Graduate University to obtain her PhD in Clinical Psychology. Shanna joined the Academy in 2007.

Shanna spent her last 21 years in private practice working with adults through psychotherapy as well as psychotherapy groups. She had a special interest in women’s health. Shanna was instrumental in bringing the Atlanta Birth Center into being. Shanna’s calm disposition and intuitive nature made special bonds with each life she touched. She illuminated every room and befriended each person in it. Her joy was contagious. She lived a life full of authenticity and took special care to appreciate every moment. Her discipline and dedication as a college athlete translated off the field as she showed the same energy to her clients. Shanna is survived by her wife, Sharon Hiers Jackson, two sons, Sam and Gray Jackson-Noell, her parents, Dr. Travis Harold and Linda Levoy Jackson, and her brother Travis Aaron Jackson.

1944 – 2026

Ronnie was born on September 14, 1944 in Brooklyn where she spent her early years. She moved with her family to Queens and then Long Island where she graduated from Levittown High. Ronnie was a New York merit scholar and a member of the National Honor Society. She went on to college at Antioch in Ohio from where she travelled widely but particularly through Southern Mexico where she worked and studied Mayan culture. She later attended The New School in Manhattan and the University of Texas where she received a PhD in clinical psychology. Ronnie interned and worked at St Elizabeths Hospital in Washington and later in her private practice in Georgetown and Dupont Circle. Ronnie loved AAP and attended nearly every meeting during her 50 year career. She served on numerous committees, on EC and as secretary.

Though reserved in her personal demeanor, Ronnie was known widely as an exceptional therapist and teacher. She is survived by her adoring husband, Marc, and her two children, David and Kalli and her grandsons, Miles and Parker.

1943 – 2026

For those of you, new-ish to the Academy, who didn’t know Ray, let me say, you really missed something. Ray was a spiritual seeker, master therapist, beloved friend, father, and half of the team of Hallie and Ray. He was a clear thinker, a brave talker, an all-star high school athlete, and beyond all this, a brilliant writer. For all of that he was modest. He called himself a common man, although for us he was anything but. He wrote with quiet wisdom and, often, a self-deprecating, humor, that made his wisdom more accessible.

Born a Catholic, early in his life he became a priest, and while he eventually left the priesthood, the priesthood never left him. We, in the Academy, felt his spiritual presence and his ministry as he presided over our ceremonies through the years. It was a clear part of who he was.

Wherever he went people felt his impact, an impact both institutional and personal. Ray was a truth-teller, both about others, and most of all about himself. I was with him in a men’s group for several decades, and can see him clearly describing what he saw as his personal failings—resentments, personal foibles, individual faults, sometimes with his face in a knot, and sometimes just matter-of-factly. He felt alone as he began to talk, but soon others of us, who might not have noticed those things in ourselves or were too ashamed to give them voice, joined him. It was something to behold.

Praise was difficult for Ray to embrace, much as he desired it, a fact he would attribute to his Irish roots. He was proud of his youthful athletic prowess and notoriety, his writing skills and accomplishments, yet, much as he took pride in those things, he felt uncomfortable with the praise and, in the face of it would be in discomfort, a fact betrayed by his patented laugh.

I sat to write this, accompanied by some of Ray’s writings that Hallie had sent me, I could hear his voice echo, and, while I recognized his wisdom, it was his humor that took me, somehow, by surprise. I could see the twinkle in his eyes, and I imagined our having a conversation. I told him about this gathering, all the positive things said, and the number of people attending, and I asked him what he thought about it, Smiling and laughing in the way he did, he said, “I’d rather be leading it.”