Donor Spotlight: Pat Volland

Patricia Volland was hit by a car on a spring day in 2009 while riding a Vespa through the Pennsylvania countryside.

At the time, she was 67 years old. Many of her peers had already retired, but if anything, Volland’s ambitions were only accelerating. As senior vice president at the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM), her innovative efforts to expand and strengthen geriatric social work were beginning to find their way into university curriculums and VA hospitals across the country. It was the culmination of a decades-long quest to ensure that aging adults retained their independence – and there was still much work to be done.

The scooter ride along a quiet country road was meant to anchor a happy reunion with cherished old friends. Instead, Volland’s husband Bob watched helplessly as a car – whose driver had been texting – swerved across the dividing lane and struck his wife.

Her injuries were staggering. She’d broken her neck and pelvis, and nearly every bone in both legs. Her spleen ruptured. Her bladder was damaged beyond repair.

“At the hospital, the trauma surgeon told Bob that for the first few days, my life was in his hands,” Volland says. “And after that, it would be up to me if I wanted to live.”

And she did.

Over the next nine months, Volland’s recovery would be driven by her determination to return to the life she’d left behind – one brimming with love and rich friendships – and to work that served a greater good.

While still in intensive care, Volland tapped a visiting colleague to take her place at an upcoming conference and, despite the haze of medication, meticulously outlined the presentation. Alongside multiple surgeries and months of grueling rehabilitation, she kept track of projects she’d set in motion, grateful for the co-workers who maintained and expanded the work while she recovered.

But more than anything, Volland says, it was Bob who “willed her to live.”

Channeling a never-quit spirit forged in his Bronx childhood, Bob became both Volland’s protector and biggest cheerleader. He immersed himself in the logistics of her care and treatment, challenging resistant insurance companies, researching therapy options and consulting with doctors up and down the East Coast to ensure she had the best possible care.

When Volland was nearly discharged from rehab without a power wheelchair – and access to the independence she needed to return to the life she’d left – Bob fought for a loaner and got one.

“Bob was such a tremendous advocate,” Volland says.

A month after she returned home, Volland could be found commuting up Madison Avenue to her office; whenever Bob couldn’t drive her, she hopped on a neighborhood bus and made her own way.

“I didn’t ever doubt that I would go back to work,” she says.

Returning to NYAM was just one part of Volland’s plan. Her experiences in the hospital – wrestling with siloed care and complex insurance, watching fellow patients struggle to achieve independence after injury – had expanded her sense of purpose. And so, even as she was still getting a feel for her own newly shaped life, Volland reached out to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and asked how she might help.

“In all those months at Mount Sinai, I saw so many young people end up in nursing homes because their families couldn’t care for them,” she says. “At that point, I couldn’t do anything about it. But, in my mind, I kept thinking there must be a way to change that trajectory.”

Volland joined the Reeve Foundation board in 2012, embracing its mission with the same rigor and determination to make a difference that defined her career.

She began by reading more than a thousand pages of materials from the National Paralysis Resource Center (NPRC) from grant applications to its comprehensive Paralysis Resource Guide. When she became the board’s Quality of Life point person, Volland travelled to the NPRC’s New Jersey office for a deep dive with staff; listening to Information Specialists describe their work with newly injured individuals and learning about the array of critical services aimed at building healthy, independent lives was eye-opening.

“That's when I really learned how broad it was, and how passionate the staff is about the work they do,” she says. “It was very inspiring and committed me to being even more involved.”

Over the next dozen years, Volland’s expertise in healthcare and research helped improve outreach and outcomes across the NPRC. She recalibrated how NPRC programs could be assessed to better expand their scope and impact for the community they served. Her input strengthened the annual community survey, allowing the NPRC to more effectively gather crucial data to meet evolving community needs. But she also paid close attention to the scientific advances underway, supporting foundation efforts to fund innovative spinal cord injury research.

At the same time, Volland continued her celebrated career at NYAM, working to not only strengthen student interest and engagement, but infuse components of aging more broadly into the social work curriculum. She established a pioneering leadership academy for deans and directors of schools of social work that eventually became the Social Work Leadership Institute at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in New York; its initiatives, like her efforts with students, were integrated throughout academia and fostered the development of programs on aging at universities across the country.

The success Volland achieved after the accident, both professionally and in rebuilding an independent and engaged life, came in part because of her involvement with the Reeve Foundation.

“It helped me begin to be comfortable being identified as a person in a chair,” she says, adding, “It’s interesting because you’re changed. Physically, you’re very different. But at the end of the day, if you’re lucky, you come to that place where you say, ‘I’m still me.’”

Meeting so many other people living with spinal cord injury and paralysis through her work with Reeve not only helped Volland reconcile her identity around the injury, but provided Bob with a critical new community, too.

“He found a great sense of camaraderie and comfort with others through the foundation,” she says.

Volland retired from the board earlier this year, leaving a legacy defined by tireless efforts to not only champion, but constantly improve programs that increase independence and quality of life after injury.

“Pat’s service to the board was a gift to the foundation,” says Reeve Foundation CEO Maggie Goldberg. “Her leadership, passion, and legacy shaped the very heart of our work. She was fueled by a determination to leave this foundation – and this world – a better place. She did, and we are forever grateful.”

Volland continues to support the Reeve Foundation as a member of its Regional Champions Program, writing and calling her congressional representative to advocate on behalf of NPRC funding. She remains as passionate about its critical work as the day she visited its office so many years ago.

“It is the only place where anyone can get information and advice at no cost, and is often the first point of contact when something devastating has happened,” she says. “In one day your life changes almost 180 degrees. The NPRC makes all the difference in the world because it gives you an anchor and hope from the very beginning.”