Short Hills Woman Is 'First Female Amputee' Fire Academy Grad

MILLBURN, NJ — New Jersey-based motivational speaker and athlete Amanda Sullivan recently graduated from a Somerset County fire academy to become "the first female amputee in the world to graduate from a fire academy," she posted victoriously on Facebook on March 21.

She added, "I will make it my mission to ensure that I’m not the last. I’m excited to give back to my community again. Here’s to a new chapter of awesomeness in my new career & to never, ever giving up!!"

It's been a long road for Sullivan after overcoming adversity.

Sullivan grew up in a family of athletes in the Short Hills section of Millburn, she told Patch on Tuesday.

"I grew up on 53 Baltusrol Way," she said. "I was captain of varsity field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse at Millburn High School and my twin brother, Ryan, and I were 'athletes of the year' at MHS. I was also secretary of my senior class, president of my youth group at St. Rose of Lima, secretary of the Celtic club, pretty much involved in everything at MHS."

Besides involvement in athletics, Sullivan's family participated in public service. After Sullivan graduated from Villanova, she volunteered all over the world. She became a first responder and aid worker, particularly with women and children who had survived massacres. She made plans to open an orphanage.

But two accidents put her life on pause.

In 2009, as noted in various news stories, she was driving into a parking lot and another car hit her. Weeks later, while walking into a physical therapy center as part of her recovery, a driver slammed into her body, throwing her onto the pavement and causing injuries from head to toe.

"As my Irish nana would say, 'if we didn’t have bad luck, we wouldn’t have any luck at all," she said Tuesday.

She spent part of her time recovering in her childhood home in Short Hills. Bedrest was hard for someone so active, and she became severely depressed.

But then Sullivan she started settling goals. Eventually, she worked out with injured veterans and ran marathons.

"After doing limb-salvage for years," noted a story this week on WJXT in Jacksonville, Fla., "Sullivan had to have her leg amputated. She has been an amputee for two years and has been using a prosthetic leg for almost a year and a half. Sullivan had been an athlete her entire life and battled depression. She was able to bounce back and didn’t want this to define her whole life."

And this month, Sullivan told Patch, she received her certifications and diploma from Somerset County Emergency Services Training Academy, or SCESTA, where she started training last August.

She has been a probationary firefighter in Manville, N.J., since last June, but needed to graduate from the academy.

"Due to covid, we unfortunately didn’t have a graduation," she said. "So, I received all of my certifications and my diploma in the mail 10 days ago."

She lives in Manville, where she works.

Motivational posts

Sullivan frequently posts honest messages when things are getting her down, but also about her goals.

She recently posted that she was chosen as a character in a children's coloring book about inclusion. The page shows her wielding a fire hose.

Two weeks ago, she wrote, "I’ve been struggling this month. My Mom’s birthday is the 13th, I was run over on the 16th, & my Mom died on the 20th. We are a year into the isolation of this pandemic. Being completely alone during the first half of the pandemic (except for my kitten, thank goodness for her) really highlighted my losses."

But she added, "There is still so much to be grateful for. This [new] puppy has brought smiles, happiness, love & adventures into my life. ...Bo and I walked two miles in my Mom’s honor this morning and will walk two more later on today."

Sullivan said that she has spoken at Short Hills High School in the past, and hopes to get back to such events when things open back up.

Read more of Sullivan's posts here.

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