No Barriers

When Joanna Sprtel Walters graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1994, she was among the first group of women out of the Academy to have selected warfare specialties. She served aboard the USS PAUL F FOSTER (DD964) and the USS LA MOURE COUNTY (LST 1194) and finished her career in the Navy at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes while getting her MBA from DePaul University. Since graduating with h...

Courthney Russell is a creator, activist, and social entrepreneur.  At one time on a collision course with incarceration or death, Courthney turned his life around after high school when he applied and was accepted to a pre-med program. Though he found his calling in med school, he continued to struggle with homelessness until graduating in 2011.  Courthney’s resolve to overcome his difficult life...

Maureen Beck was born without her left hand, but that didn’t stop her from picking up the sport of climbing at the age of 12. Now based in Colorado’s Front Range, Mo spends her nights training at the gym and her days climbing all over the American southwest. She works closely with the adaptive climbing community as an instructor with Paradox Sports and is the Chair of the USAC Paraclimbing Committ...

Listen to the full episodes referenced in this episode: Episode 57 - Cultivating Compassion with Physician, Dr. Rana Awdish Episode 78 - Serendipity with Jill Wheatley Episode 54 - Thinking Through Uncertainty: Neuroscientist, Beau Lotto Episode 53 - Examining Collective Grief with Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber  Episode 64 - Exploring Vision with Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib Episode 41 - Harnessing A...

Eduardo Garcia is a professional Chef who owns retail food brand Montana Mex, a Mexican inspired line of Organic, NON-GMO condiment sauces, seasonings, and Avocado oil.  He is known as the "bionic chef" because he cooks with a prosthetic left arm, the result of an accident while hunting in 2011. His story is the subject of the feature-length documentary Charged . Eduardo is an avid outdoorsman, fi...

Mike Savicki In November 1990., while training to become a U.S. Navy F-14 fighter pilot, Mike Savicki sustained a severe spinal cord injury after diving into the ocean. In an instant, he went from being a fit, active, promising Naval officer – commissioned as the top-flight candidate in the nation’s number one ROTC college graduating class – to a quadriplegic who was challenged with learning to li...

Kate Merrill is a Registered Nurse who worked in a Trauma Intensive Care Unit for 22 years before taking the plunge to open her own bakery in Chicago.  Edge of Sweetness was off to a strong start in 2020, hitting its sales targets and becoming a neighborhood favorite. Then, COVID-19 hit, and after months of adjusting and taking the necessary precautions, Kate and her staff made the choice to tempo...

Dr. Perea-Henze is a global health physician, government official, and corporate executive who served most recently as Deputy Mayor for Health & Human Services for the City of New York since 2019. He was responsible for the citywide response for COVID19 from the start of the pandemic, preparedness for recurrences, and recovery efforts.  He was the Chair of the NYC Health and Social Services Sector...

Prior to her combat injury and subsequent retirement from service, Command Sergeant Major Gretchen Evans served 27 years in the US Army and was responsible for more than 30,000 ground troops in Afghanistan. She is one of the most decorated female veterans in U.S. history. During her service, Gretchen survived a rocket blast which left her with hearing loss and a traumatic brain injury. While strug...

Richard Casper is a United States Marine Veteran, Purple Heart recipient, Artist, and Entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of CreatiVets, a non-profit that provides art, music, and writing programs for wounded veterans with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.  Richard was named one of TIME magazine’s ​ Next Generation Leaders, ​ is the feature of TIME’s documen...

After serving 14 years in both the Navy as a chef to the Commander of the US 6th Fleet and then transitioning on to becoming an Army team leader in one of the military’s most dangerous jobs, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), Staff Sergeant Aaron Hale was blinded by an IED. Not letting his injuries hold him back, Aaron became an EOD instructor, motivational speaker, mountain climber, white water k...

Debbie Fisher was a physical therapist for over 20 years and is now a full-time caretaker for her daughter, Grace.  In 2014 during her senior year of High School, Grace Fisher’s spine was ravaged by a virus leaving her paralyzed from the neck down. She was diagnosed with Acute Flaccid Myelitis and sent to Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver, CO.  At Craig Hospital, she was introduced to music...

Melissa Comeau is honored to serve as the Director of the American Red Cross Military and Veteran Caregiver Network. Her book Sleeping with the War was published in 2015 and has brought the family and caregiver perspective to life after combat.  Melissa served as a Fellow for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation. She has a long history of providing peer support to military families and is supporting effo...

Who are Youth Caregivers? Caregiving youths are children and adolescents who are 18 years of age or younger and who provide significant or substantial assistance, often on a regular basis, to relatives or household members who need help because of physical or mental illness, disability, frailty associated with aging, substance misuse, or other condition. Connie Siskowski’s broad background in heal...

In 2014, Jill was a Phys Ed teacher in Europe when she was hit in the head by a rogue baseball during class.  The severity of the blow resulted in a traumatic brain injury and a 70% vision loss. In addition to the physical wounds, it left Jill in a deep state of despair. After 26 months in 7 hospitals in 3 countries, she was finally on the road to physically recover but still felt emotionally lost...

An educator for over twenty years, Lisa Yokana is the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) coordinator at Scarsdale High School, where she designed and teaches a three-level STEAM course sequence for Scarsdale’s Design Lab.   In 2019, the program won the gold medal in the STEAMEX international contest for innovative curriculum design. Lisa works with teachers across the discipli...

Michael O'Toole has been immersed in education and coaching for more than three decades.  His work in the classroom focuses on the areas of both physical and cultural geography as well as Earth system science. Throughout his career as an educator and curriculum developer, he has had the opportunity to work with students and teachers around the world and with such organizations as National Geograph...

Dr. Michael Kuchar is the Superintendent of the South Bergen Jointure Commission, a New Jersey public school district whose mission is to dramatically increase the independence of individuals with extraordinary challenges. With a combined twenty-five years of experience as a school district administrator, Dr. Kuchar has served as the Interim Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction...

In his quest for contentment, Christian Leeby dedicated his life to yoga. After studying with the world’s greatest masters and teaching full time for over 25 years, he finally attained the lofty goal of “stilling the mind”. But it didn’t work. When life got hard, as it does for everyone, and he couldn’t escape to practice the yoga he loved, he fell apart.  For two years all he focused on was tryin...

Christine Ha lost her vision over the course of a few years in her early twenties due to a neurological condition called neuromyelitis optica, which affects the optic nerves and spinal cord. Hosts, Jeff and Erik, speak with Christine about the challenges she faces as a blind Chef, and through their conversation, they discover that her tenacity and strength has been a mainstay of her personality si...

Greg Brenneman speaks to Erik and Dave about balancing work and life in the time of COVID on this latest episode. His lengthy business resume and acumen have positioned Greg as an authority on how to succeed in the corporate world, but he is also a believer in spending equal time investing in family and giving back to the community. With his unique lens, Greg offers wisdom in the form of what he c...

A continuation of our Alchemy Series, sponsored by Wells Fargo and Prudential, we speak to Heather Zoccali. Heather hails from Kentucky and has made Colorado her home since 2002. Heather taught dance in public schools but personal tragedies in her life led her in a new direction. Heather found that caregivers were often a forgotten part of the rehabilitation and recovery process and needed opportu...

When Dr. Andres Maldonado started experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19, he resisted heading to the hospital. As his condition worsened, his friends and family urged him to seek help. So, after 9 days he was tested and it was positive. He was rushed to the ER and soon, the ICU.  His stoicism quickly diminished when he was bed-bound and was placed on a high-flow nasal cannula to force oxygen in...

Continuing with our Alchemy Series, sponsored by Wells Fargo and Prudential, we interview Sofija Korać, a senior human rights adviser at the United States Mission to the UN covering a range of issues including the human rights of persons with disabilities.  She previously worked on human rights issues for the bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor at the State Department. Originally from Bel...

Around the time when lockdowns were becoming a reality for most of the U.S., our hosts had the opportunity to slow down and catch up with world-renowned athlete and long-distance runner, Joseph Gray. Living in Colorado, Joseph was enjoying time with his family and took some time out of his training schedule to chat with our No Barriers Team. As part of our Alchemy Series (sponsored by Wells Fargo...