Shauna Pender is a Miss America preliminary scholarship winner who was crowned

Miss Florida The Miss Florida competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Florida in the Miss America pageant. Florida has twice won the Miss America crown. In the fall of 2018, the Miss America Organization terminated Miss F ...

in 2003 after preceding Miss Florida

Ericka Dunlap Ericka Dunlap (born December 29, 1981) is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Orlando, Florida who was named Miss Florida 2003 and subsequently crowned Miss America 2004. Dunlap was the first African American woman to be crowned Miss Flor ...

won

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...

. She had previously won Miss

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

. She was born in 1979.

Education

Pender graduated from Houston County High School near

Warner Robins, Georgia Warner Robins (typically ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located in Houston and Peach counties in the central part of the state. It is currently Georgia's eleventh-largest incorporated city, with an estimated population of 80,308 in th ...

. In 2003, Pender graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

.
Shauna Pender Official Site

Media

Pender appeared on several network program broadcasts as an actress and in numerous media reports on her accident and recovery. She acted in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC daytime soap opera

All My Children ''All My Children'' (often shortened to ''AMC'') is an American television soap opera that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 5, 1970, to September 23, 2011, and on The Online Network (TOLN) from April 29 to September 2, 20 ...

and in the Spring of 2003 she finished in the Top Twelve on the short-lived ABC reality television show " All American Girl".

Accident

Only two weeks after being crowned Miss Florida 2003, Pender was critically injured in an automobile accident on November 7, 2003. Pender was a passenger in a white

Lincoln Town Car The Lincoln Town Car is a model line of full-size luxury sedans that was marketed by the Lincoln division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. Deriving its name from a limousine body style, Lincoln marketed the Town Car from 1981 to ...

on her way to a charity event when a refrigerated container tractor-trailer overloaded with avocados overturned on her vehicle in the westbound lanes of the Dolphin Expressway in Miami, Florida. After being rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, Pender momentarily died in the operating room but was resuscitated by medical professionals. Pender underwent months of surgeries and physical therapy to begin her multi-year recovery from the accident. She speaks frequently of the accident and recovery in her motivational speaking engagements. Special Report: Fighting Back: Former Miss Florida Shauna Pender; CBS 4, Miami, Florida; September 14, 2006
Thompson, Jamie; With her tiara, tears, St. Petersburg Times, June 24, 2004

Public causes

Pender's main focus for her reign as Miss Florida was to have been "Society Embracing Special Needs People", and she continues to speak on disabilities and special needs issues. Following her accident, she also focused on bringing media attention to the dangers of overweight trucks.

References

External links

Shauna Pender's Official Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Pender, Shauna Florida State University alumni Living people 1979 births People from St. Petersburg, Florida