The NAU Review — Surviving a near-fatal accident, the importance of BSU and Lumberjacks at Fashion Week

Feb. 10, 2022

After near-death snowboarding accident, professor gets second chance at life

If your life were to suddenly come to an end, how would you feel looking back? Ira Allen, an associate professor of rhetoric in NAU’s Department of English, was faced with this daunting question when he found himself lying in the snow, paralyzed and in excruciating pain, unsure he would survive. That snowboarding accident at Snowbowl should have killed him, but life had other plans. Through his recovery—which included a reconstructive spinal surgery, neurorehab and relearning how to walk—he not only learned how to live with a disability and appreciate the small victories but also how to be a more compassionate professor and human being.