Older Posts
A lawyer and mom , Jen Goodwin hasn’t let her spinal cord injury prevent her from reaching her life dreams. With the two aforementioned titles achieved post-injury, Jen is a great example of what people with paralysis can achieve.
But there’s no denying her injury altered her life plans. A former pharmaceutical sales rep with a new house at the time of her injury, everything was falling into place. Read on to see exactly how Jen moved on since that fateful day.
Why She’s Fearless
Jen is one of those people who’s always challenged herself. She was a busy career woman in her 20s, flying all around the world as a pharmaceutical sales representative. And at the age of 23, she scored the job of her dreams, allowing her to stop traveling as much and buy a home in her hometown.
But in 2008, shortly after buying her home, Jen became a C5-6 quadriplegic while on a late night boat ride. Her neighbor fell on her, breaking her neck. Jen has been determined to not let her injury ruin her life plans. Fortunately, she’s been blessed by the unwavering support of family and friends.
After returning home from the hospital, Jen began to see many injustices negatively impacting persons with disabilities in her community and decided to take matters into her own hands after receiving inadequate services from a lawyer in her hometown. She decided to one day make legal changes herself and enrolled in law school at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 5 years after her accident.
And she didn’t stop there. In her second year of law school, at 32 years old, Jen began to experience full-on “baby rabies.” After weighing her choices (she wasn’t eligible to adopt from China), she decided to pursue artificial insemination through donor sperm. “I wasn’t getting any younger,” she says, fully aware of the risks older moms face because of her mother, who was an OBGYN nurse. After her second try, Jen became pregnant and was told she was having a son. And in 2015, Jen’s son Beckham was born. She pushed him out in 3 pushes and he came 6 weeks early.
What’s Next?
To make solo parenting easier, Jen moved in next to her parents and made the home next door accessible (a great idea for those who want to be near family, but still want their privacy). When raising a child as a quadriplegic, it definitely takes a village and Jen’s family has been amazing. And she went on to have another son, Rome, in 2021 via adoption.
Since her injury, Jen has become very active in the disability advocacy community, including going to United Spinal’s Roll on Capitol Hill. She also joined the Medical/Legal Partnership at Arkansas Children’s in her continued effort to improve the world for people with disabilities.
ideas@spinalpedia.com
