Pamela Henline

Pamela Henline grew up in Baltimore and attended public schools. She received a B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University. She worked mostly in high tech industries including Alcoa, Westinghouse Nuclear Energy Systems, Argonne National Laboratory High Energy Physics Division, Litton Industries Guidance and Control and General Atomics Fusion Division.

Throughout her life she has enjoyed the outdoors, sports and athletic activities. She also has nurtured many animals and pets including hamsters, baby birds, ducks, rabbits, chickens, orphaned squirrels and her many beloved dogs. At age 14 she successfully showed a miniature schnauzer to an American Kennel Club Championship, including participating in breed classes and junior showmanship at the Westminster Madison Square Garden show. In her 30's she trained and showed a young thoroughbred horse to the highest dressage level., Grand Prix.

Although she concentrated on recovery for the immediate years after the car accident which paralyzed her, and still spends considerable effort maintaining her physical condition, she has been an active part of her community. She has been on the boards of several charitable organizations, participated on an advisory board sponsored by the Department of Energy relating to the cleanup of radioactive waste at Los Alamos National Laboratory, helped produce a development plan for a portion of Santa Fe County and entertains patients at an Alzheimer's home with her miniature schnauzer.

There have been numerous articles about her horse activities since the auto accident in 1996. She writes a monthly bird column for her community of 7500 people. Walk, Don't Run is her first book.

In her words:

I still think of myself as Pam-before and Pam-after, and probably always will, especially since I am never free of some of the problems left by my spinal cord injury. However, the Pam-after has had an unexpectedly amazing life. I attribute most of my recovery to hard work and luck (the exact damage done with an incomplete spinal cord injury can never be precisely known, and each person's injury is unique).

Even though everything I do is somewhat compromised or just down right hard, I have found that life is always worth living. Since the accident, I have a better understanding of the problems of others. And I hope everyone can garner some enthusiasm for living and some positive perspectives after reading about my struggle.

Picture: Karen Nord, Daniel Drobnis