Called to Connect
Written on June 28, 2022
If there is one thing Sandra Cramolini is not, it’s a token. She doesn’t lend her name to a cause without pouring her soul into it. She’s an advocate. A champion. A changemaker.
For Phoenix Society, she is a self-described cheerleader. But you won’t find her simply shouting encouragement from the sidelines. Whether she’s organizing fundraisers, sponsoring survivors to attend Phoenix Society virtual events, training survivors as Phoenix SOAR Peer Supporters, donating her own money, adapting programming for virtual formats, or juggling decisions in a leadership role—she’s always hustling.
Sandra is an activist and giver by nature. But her passion for Phoenix Society was born out of her early experiences as a burn nurse when she cared for survivors who had no support system after leaving the hospital.
In the early 1990s, Sandra joined the burn team at a county health system in California. A pivotal time in medical advancements for burn injuries, new treatments were improving survival rates and care. It was exciting, but something important was still missing in burn care—something Sandra couldn’t ignore.
I saw very early on in my career the struggles that survivors faced after their hospital stay. They would be comfortable recovering in the hospital, but when they would go home, they would find life was not what it was prior to their injury.”
Sandra saw survivors without aftercare or community, overwhelmed by what life had become. She witnessed them grappling with depression, suicide, and emotional disabilities that left them isolated, unfulfilled, not returning to work or having personal lives. Nothing was the same for them, and they didn’t know where to turn.
Hospitals were providing the medical care more patients needed to survive. But many of those same survivors were left to struggle on their own, as they tried to cope and learn how to live again.
More had to be done. So, Sandra set out to do it.
Through the American Burn Association, Sandra met burn survivors and advocates like Cindy Rutter, James Bosch, and Jill Sproul, who introduced her to Phoenix Society and exposed her to the power of peer support.
In 2008, Sandra attended her first Phoenix World Burn Congress. She was hooked.
“It was there that I found the connection that survivors had been missing—those critical opportunities for psychosocial support after they left the hospital. I immediately felt like we, as healthcare professionals, were doing survivors a disservice if we did not provide them with these opportunities to network.”
Sandra was energized. She started a burn foundation within her hospital foundation to connect survivors with Phoenix Society and support resources. She organized a walk-a-thon, formed a team, and recruited donors. For years, her grassroots efforts raised burn awareness, trained Phoenix SOAR Peer Supporters, and sponsored survivors to attend Phoenix WBC…one year, raising enough funds to send 22 survivors.
There is nothing more powerful than peer support. It changes lives.”
The burn community captured Sandra’s heart and talent decades ago. Through the years, she has worked tirelessly, connecting countless survivors to Phoenix.
In 2017, she retired from her role in healthcare. But she has no plans to slow her role in the burn community. In fact, she’s ramping up her engagement. Most recently, she expanded her involvement by joining Phoenix Society’s Board of Directors.
I hope that by being on the board, I can make an impact in educating more healthcare leaders about the importance of survivor support.”
In her experience, hospitals face many hurdles in providing support to burn survivors. Most don’t have money or resources dedicated to aftercare. And many hospital caregivers don’t realize the need for or benefit of connecting survivors to a community of support.
Sandra sees it as her responsibility and her mission to change that.
“It is up to us—professionals like me, at the end of our career—to model and recruit burn leadership within healthcare that understands the impact they can make on a survivor’s life. It is up to us to champion the medical directors and get our doctors engaged. That is my role going forward.”
Doctors and nurses are uniquely positioned as the first point of contact for survivors. Sandra’s goal is to empower more of them to connect survivors with community and support early in their recovery.
It’s her calling. And it’s how she’s changing lives.