Longtime RRHS teacher memorialized at White House

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The altar sits at the end of a wide hallway, surrounded by white curtains and blanketed in sunlight. Set in among the candles and flowers are framed photographs.

The hallway is in the White House, and the photographs are of loved ones the staff, first family and others in Washington, D.C., have lost recently.

One of those faces, tucked cozily into the colorful backdrop of the altar but still front-and-center, is that of longtime Rio Rancho High School teacher Cara Pino.

Pino passed away one year ago today, Nov. 1, 2023, from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) a rare brain disease that is fast, degenerative and 100% fatal. There is no treatment, no vaccine, no cure.

Pino is survived by her husband Steve, sister Katherine, and daughters Isabella and Madeline, all of whom have made a push to raise awareness of CJD.

According to her obituary, “Cara earned a master’s degree in teaching and spent 16 years teaching English at Rio Rancho High School. Most recently she began teaching at La Cueva High to be closer to her daughters. Cara expected honesty and effort from her students and was always there to help guide them — often earning their respect and adoration in return. She loved the camaraderie of her peers and enjoyed collaborating or commiserating with them over a beer.

“In life she displayed confidence, passion, and was not afraid to tell it like it was. Her forthright nature could make some uneasy but earned the respect of most through her authenticity and integrity. Cara always enjoyed a good laugh and was never afraid to poke fun at herself.”

She was also a supporter of Special Olympics of New Mexico (SONM.org) for more than 20 years.

“A year ago today, my beautiful sister lost her battle with CJD,” Katherine said in a social media post on Nov. 1. “Please join me in honoring and raising awareness of CJD for my sister, as well as those who came before and will come after.”

Steve’s sister, also named Catherine, works in politics in Washington, which is how the photo found its way to the White House memorial.

In September 2024, a federal bipartisan resolution was introduced to designate Nov. 12 International Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Awareness Day.

What is CJD?According to cjdfoundation.org, CJD affects between one and two people per million, and 85% of CJD cases are “sporadic,” meaning there is no known cause.

Additionally, CJD “typically leads to death within a few months to one year following the onset of symptoms.”

Shockingly little is actually known at this point about CJD. It belongs to a family of diseases known as “prion diseases.” There are 40 different prion variants, causing a wide array of fatal diseases such as Fatal Familial Insomnia (a genetic prion) and Kuru (an acquired prion).

Though prions are the most fatal (and rarest) disease agents in the world, there is still scientific controversy surrounding them and much more research is needed.

What is known is that prion diseases are not viruses, they are not bacteria, and they are not parasites.

According to cjdfoundation.org, “The normal prion protein spontaneously misfolds into a disease-causing form and induces other normal prion proteins around it to misfold, in a similar pattern to other protein-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.”

Why the protein misfolds, where the disease comes from, why it activates when it does are all still huge unknowns.

Prion diseases are not new. In fact, you’ve probably heard of at least one. The most famous prion disease incident happened in England in the mid-1990s when a large number of cattle were diagnosed with what became known as “Mad Cow Disease.”

“Mad Cow” is a bovine-specific, acquired prion disease. The cause was later determined to be tainted beef.

CJD is human-specific and sporadic. The cause is largely unknown. There is a genetic form of CJD, which is the cause of 10-15% of all CJD cases.

Five hundred new cases of CJD are reported in the United States each year.

How to help• Wear purple on Nov. 12 to show support for a bipartisan bill that was introduced this year to make Nov. 12 International Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Awareness Day.

• Donate to the CJD Foundation, which focuses on “providing family support, medical education and research grant programs” for those affected by CJD. Donations can be made at cjdfoundation.org.

• Educate friends and family about this disease. A fact sheet can also be found at cjdfoundation.org.

• For those interested in a deeper dive into the mystery of prion disease, “Memory and Madness” by Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner and “The Pathological Protein” by Philip Yam are considered top resources.

• Lastly, for the more audio-focused, “This Podcast Will Kill You,” hosted by Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke, offers informative and easy-to-grasp lessons on multiple disease types, including prions.