Today we’d like to introduce you to Meredith Kapchinski.
Hi Meredith, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Fortis Therapy Center was founded in April 2018 by Meredith Kapchinski, PT, DPT, with a vision to make high-quality physical therapy accessible to individuals of all ages and abilities in Central Texas. What began as a small, community-driven effort has grown into a thriving nonprofit healthcare organization recognized for its innovative, evidence-based approach to intensive rehabilitation. After two years of mobile and part-time services, Fortis opened its first physical clinic in Dripping Springs in December 2021, establishing a permanent home for outpatient services, clinical education partnerships, and research collaborations.
The organization launched its first major pro-bono initiative, Project Walk, in January 2022, an intensive pediatric physical therapy program designed to provide body-weight-supported locomotor training and overground interventions at no cost to families. As demand grew, Fortis expanded its mission-driven programming to include Project Heroes in 2023, serving veterans, first responders, and active-duty service members. These programs fill a critical gap in Central Texas, where intensive rehabilitation services are limited, often cost-prohibitive, and unaffordable for many families.
From its inception, Fortis has been deeply committed to education, research, and community partnership. The Center collaborates closely with the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences by hosting Doctor of Physical Therapy students in clinical rotations, ensuring a 2:1 therapist-to-patient ratio during intensives. A research partnership with Baylor University, launched in 2023, examines neuroplasticity changes associated with intensive pediatric therapy. Fortis also engages local high schools, colleges, and Texas A&M engineering students, who have designed and fabricated therapeutic devices for the clinic, to strengthen community involvement and innovation.
Today, Fortis Therapy Center is recognized as the 2024 Dripping Springs Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit of the Year and continues to grow its reach and impact. Guided by a passionate Board of Directors and supported by volunteers, donors, and families, Fortis remains dedicated to delivering individualized, evidence-based care that empowers patients to reach their fullest potential. What began as one therapist’s dream has become a leading force for accessible rehabilitation and lasting change in the lives of children, adults, and families across Central Texas.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road to building Fortis Therapy Center has been deeply rewarding, but it has not always been smooth. Like many mission-driven nonprofits, Fortis grew out of a clear need in the community long before the resources existed to meet it. In the early years, the biggest challenge was simply capacity, there were far more children, families, and adults needing therapy than there were hours, space, or therapists to serve them. Operating as a mobile practice during the first two years required creativity, long hours, and an unwavering commitment to every patient who trusted us with their care.
Securing a permanent clinic space brought new challenges: fundraising, purchasing specialized equipment, managing rapid growth, and building a sustainable financial structure for programs that would remain free to families. Intensive therapy, especially body-weight-supported locomotor training, is expensive to deliver, and ensuring that no family ever receives a bill requires constant grant writing, fundraising, community partnerships, and careful stewardship of every dollar.
Another struggle has been the emotional weight of the work. Families often come to Fortis after months or years of waiting lists, inadequate therapy frequency, or insurance denials. Many have been told what their child “will never do.” Supporting them through fear, grief, and frustration while offering hope, evidence-based interventions, and measurable progress is both a privilege and a heavy responsibility.
As Fortis grew, so did the challenge of scaling programs without losing the personalized, patient-first culture that defines us. Recruiting therapists, training volunteers, mentoring students, and maintaining a high standard of care, while still running a nonprofit, has required extraordinary teamwork, resilience, and community support.
Yet each struggle has strengthened the organization. The challenges shaped Fortis into what it is today: a trusted, award-winning center recognized for overcoming barriers, innovating solutions, and putting patients and families first. The road hasn’t always been easy, but every obstacle has paved the way for a stronger foundation, bigger impact, and a future where more children, adults, veterans, and families can receive the care they deserve.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about FORTIS THERAPY CENTER?
Fortis Therapy Center is a nonprofit physical therapy clinic dedicated to making high-quality, evidence-based rehabilitation accessible to children, adults, veterans, and first responders across Central Texas. We specialize in intensive physical therapy programs—the type of therapy that creates life-changing progress but is often out of reach due to cost, long waitlists, or lack of local resources. Our mission is simple: remove barriers and deliver the level of care patients need, not just the amount insurance will pay for.
We are best known for three signature pro-bono programs:
• Project Walk – a pediatric intensive therapy program focused on gait training, neuroplasticity, and body-weight-supported locomotor training.
• Project Heroes – serving veterans, first responders, and active-duty service members recovering from orthopedic injuries, chronic pain, and service-related conditions.
What sets Fortis apart is our commitment to giving families more, more time, more hands-on care, more attention, more hope, and more measurable progress. We utilize advanced technology, a 2:1 therapist-to-patient ratio during intensives, and evidence-based interventions rooted in motor-learning science. Through partnerships with Baylor University and the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, our programs blend clinical excellence, research, and education, allowing us to track outcomes and help shape the future of rehabilitation.
We are also deeply community-driven. Much of our success is powered by volunteers, students, and donors who believe in our mission. We are proud to have been named the 2024 Dripping Springs Nonprofit of the Year, and to have earned recognition for our innovative programs and compassionate care. But what we are most proud of isn’t an award—it’s the breakthroughs we see every day. Children taking their first steps. Veterans returning to work. Adults regaining independence after neurological injury. Families finally feeling hope again.
What we want readers to know about our brand is this: Fortis is where possibility lives. We don’t follow the minimum standard, we exceed it. We don’t stop where insurance stops, we keep going. And we don’t see diagnoses—we see potential. Our services are built for real, meaningful progress: individualized outpatient therapy, intensive programs, gait training, orthopedics, neurology, and community-based rehabilitation that is tailored to each person who walks through our doors.
Fortis Therapy Center stands for strength, resilience, compassion, and forward motion. We are honored to serve this community, and we will continue expanding our programs so that every person—child or adult—has access to the therapy they need to thrive.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is creating a place where people feel seen, supported, and genuinely believed in—no matter their diagnosis, circumstances, or financial means. Fortis Therapy Center was built on the belief that every person deserves access to high-quality rehabilitation and the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. Too many families in Central Texas have been told to lower their expectations, accept limitations, or simply wait for services that never come. What matters most is changing that narrative.
I care deeply about restoring hope and providing the level of care that truly changes lives, not just the minimum amount insurance will cover. That means intensive therapy, skilled hands-on care, advanced technology, measurable outcomes, and a team that treats every patient with the same compassion and determination we would want for our own families. It means creating programs like Project Walk and Project Heroes that remove financial barriers entirely so that progress is not tied to a family’s ability to pay.
What matters most is making sure people know they are worthy of progress, that their goals are possible, and that they do not have to walk their healing journey alone. I am driven by every first step, every regained movement, every moment a parent says, “I never knew this was possible.” These breakthroughs, big and small, are why Fortis exists. They are why we keep fighting for resources, partnerships, volunteers, and funding. And they are why I will always put people, compassion, and evidence-based care at the center of everything we do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fortistherapycenter.org
- Instagram: @fortistherapycenter
- Facebook: Fortis Therapy Center
