CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier became the story she was in Iraq to report on when she was critically wounded in a car bombing in Baghdad. Two of her CBS colleagues, cameraman Paul Douglas and sound man James Brolan, were killed in the incident, along with the Army captain and Iraqi interpreter they were following.

When Dozier regained consciousness after the blast on May 29 of last year, she had more to deal with than her painful and massive injuries. "I was just finding out that Paul Douglas and James Brolan -- my colleagues, my friends -- had been killed," she says. "I was dealing with the guilt that I had survived and they hadn't."

Dozier suffered multiple trauma injuries, including broken bones in both legs, severe burns, shattered ear drums and shrapnel injuries. Later complications included excessive bone growth at fracture sites that required more surgery and acinetobacter, a drug-resistant bacterial infection that is becoming common among wounded troops recovering in military hospitals.

The recovery process took nine months. In February, after a final round of surgery, she went back to work. "Many people have not caught up to my recovery," she says. "I still get get-well cards. I'm probably going to have to run a marathon to show people I'm OK now."

Dozier will be in town tomorrow to speak at Carlow University at the fifth annual Marie Torre Memorial Lecture, which is hosted by Carlow and its Women of Spirit Institute.

The longtime newswoman has covered the Middle East for CBS TV and radio, and had been based primarily in Baghdad since 2003. She's now based temporarily in Washington, D.C.

The aftermath of her blast injuries gave Dozier a first-hand perspective on how doctors treat the severe injuries troops and civilians suffer in war zones. She shared this perspective last spring in the CBS News special "Flashpoint: A War Chronicle" and most recently in a Washington Post article and readers' forum. She is now finishing work on a book, scheduled to be published next spring.

"Writing has been essentially grief work, talking about survivor guilt, talking about the day of the blast and putting it back together."

For all she went through, she did not suffer any symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Counselors who worked with her urged her to use her reporting skills to document and deal with what had happened to her and to her colleagues.

"I didn't want antidepressants," she says. "I was crying all the time over what happened and wondering if I'd ever walk again. They told me to write. They tricked me into sitting down at a computer and starting one of the most painful journeys of my life.

"One of the major things that causes post-traumatic stress is denying what you went through, putting it in a box and not talking about it. I had the great advantage of being a reporter and a 40-year-old woman from the Oprah generation -- I'm used to talking about my feelings.

"I'm hoping the book about some of that journey will help either some of the troops who've gone through these horrible things, or people who have gone through trauma in general, to understand that you've got to bring it out to the light, or it's going to haunt you."

She also has worked to draw attention to the need for more advanced medical treatment of war-trauma injuries. "Being a reporter I can educate people, but I can't campaign for a specific bill or hospital research program." She has, however, been able to talk about her own experiences in military hospitals to key figures on Capitol Hill and to do in-depth stories on veterans' issues. She says vets are often more willing to open up to her because of what she has been through.

Dozier, who lives in Jerusalem, says she's ready to go home.

"The company was a little nervous about sending me back to the Middle East, which I understand. For me the Middle East is home. It's where I've lived off and on for the past 14 years. For them, it's a scary place. Look at the only pieces that make air out of that region. They don't see normal life. They don't see the home that I know."

And she plans to return to work in the war zones.

"You don't go to cover a story because you're a war junkie and you want to be where the adrenaline and the action is. You go because something amazing or earth-shattering or devastating is happening to a group of people. That's what I spent my whole life trying to get to. I'm not going to let a terrorist bomb stop me from going back to what I love.''

Her talk here will focus on the media.

"We are both under siege physically -- we used to stand next to the target and now we are the target -- and we're also under siege since 9/11 in terms of our patriotism. It has sometimes muzzled us as an industry."

Dozier says it's an honor to be invited to speak to students who have their careers ahead of them. "It's a chance to tell them 'I got knocked down time and time and time again, and so will you.' The way you push forward is by ignoring it and pushing through it. It's a great opportunity to pass on the stubborn gene."

The Marie Torre Memorial Lecture will be at 7 p.m. in Kresge Theatre, in Carlow's Grace Library. 3333 Fifth Ave., Oakland. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Reservations: 412-578-2091.