From medical mission partners to Baxter neighbors and business owners, the Smith family brings adventure, service and plenty of joyful chaos to life in the Village.
Justin Smith is an orthopaedic sports medicine surgeon, and his wife, Christie Smith, is a Doctor of Physical Therapy. As Justin jokes, between the two of them they can fix most things that bend the wrong way. At home, their two young sons keep them humble: a 3-year-old who runs the household, and his brother, who turned 1 at the end of August.
Finding Baxter
The Smiths have called Baxter Village home since summer 2022. Justin grew up near Atlanta; Christie is from near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Their road to Fort Mill ran through medical training in Michigan, a research year in Chicago and a sports surgery fellowship in Greenville. After exploring several communities, they found what they wanted in Baxter: parks, trails, tree-lined streets and welcoming families. "It felt like instant family in a neighborhood," Justin says.
Costa Rica to Detroit
They met on a medical mission trip in Costa Rica, where a shaggy-haired pre-med student from Georgia crossed paths with a physical therapy student from Michigan. Justin followed Christie to metro Detroit, and they married in May 2016. This year they celebrated 10 years.
Justin studied genetics at the University of Georgia and earned his medical degree from Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, with a residency at Beaumont Health, a research fellowship at Northwestern and a sports surgery fellowship at Steadman Hawkins Clinic of the Carolinas. Christie studied exercise science at Western Michigan University and earned her doctorate in physical therapy from Oakland University.
Journey Orthopaedic Institute
Today the couple owns Journey Orthopaedic Institute near Springfield in Fort Mill. Justin is a double board-certified orthopaedic sports medicine surgeon, and Christie leads the physical therapy program. The practice rests on a simple promise: patients see a surgeon in days instead of months, understand costs up front and get one coordinated plan from surgeon and physical therapist. Its mobile medical unit visited Baxter's Spring Fling in March.
Justin has helped care for athletes from the Colorado Rockies, Clemson and Georgia football, Winthrop University and local high schools, and is an assistant professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Charlotte. Christie travels to Michigan monthly to help teach in Oakland University's orthopaedic manual physical therapy program.
Adventure, closer to home
The Smiths have hiked, biked, kayaked and rafted around the world. Now adventure happens closer to home: Baxter's trails, Anne Springs Close Greenway, the Whitewater Center, tennis at the Baxter courts and stroller runs along the Riverwalk. Their older son loves biking, hiking and a little chaos; the younger one specializes in climbing forbidden objects.
The neighborhood's seasonal celebrations are family favorites, even if two little boys mean the Smiths are rarely the last to leave.
A birthday party idea
One backyard birthday party captures what the family loves about Baxter. At their older son's third birthday celebration, Justin shared an idea with a neighbor: use artificial intelligence to help doctors preserve the doctor-patient relationship. The neighbor happened to be a machine-learning scientist who builds custom software. The conversation became a business partnership, other Baxter residents offered expertise and support, and the venture recently presented at the American Medical Association's Chicago headquarters and earned its support.
"Baxter has so many entrepreneurs," Justin says.
Service brought Justin and Christie together, and Baxter gave them a place to raise their boys, care for their neighbors and build their next journey together.
This story appears in the October 2026 issue of Stroll The Village.