We say the same thing every year, but it bears repeating: Every amputee makes a difference. That’s why we don’t treat this list as a “Person of the Year” type of thing. Too many of you deserve recognition for your part in supporting the limb-loss community. So please consider the individuals named here as proxies for amputee nation’s many superstars.
Kyle Stepp
Stepp hit the ground running in 2023, leading a major prosthetic insurance reform bill to unanimous passage in the New Mexico legislature. “Kyle is magic,” says state representative Liz Thomson. “People just fall in love with him. He’s like a ray of sunshine.” And he’d be the first to share the credit for the political victory with young amputee advocates Callaway Lewis and Hope Burnett, who won over grouchy old politicians with their honesty and courage. While all of that was going on, Stepp found time to keep training for high-level para-triathlon competition; he ended up winning the national championship in September. More coverage in our May edition.
Chandra Smith
The newly crowned Ms. Wheelchair America, Smith was already familiar with disability at the time she lost three limbs in 2021: She’s an IT engineer in the Defense Intelligence Agency’s digital accessibility office. “Ninety-six percent of websites and applications are inaccessible to individuals with disabilities,” Smith told a reporter earlier this year. After becoming disabled herself, “I started experiencing all these barriers, whether it was architectural barriers, cultural attitudes or digital barriers, and I wanted to give a voice to the voiceless.” Smith has already started on that project, working on legislation in her native Maryland to strengthen digital accessibility regulations. “Advocacy is like construction,” she says. “You have to keep building.”
Dave Krupa
Krupa has been making a difference every year since 2005 as executive director of the Range of Motion Project. But we’re singling him out this year in recognition of an incredible milestone: ROMP delivered its 5,000th prosthesis in August. The recipient, Manuel Banses, is a typical ROMP beneficiary, a 63-year-old farmer from Latin America who lost his leg to diabetes. Now operating in Ecuador, Guatemala, and the United States, ROMP is global leader in promoting mobility through innovative prosthetic care. More info at rompglobal.org.
Kirstie Ennis
For the second time in four years, she got within a couple hundred meters of the Mount Everest summit but chose to turn back, rather than risk the lives of her team in dicey conditions. It was a characteristic act of service and leadership from Ennis, who lost her leg in Afghanistan and has been advocating for wounded veterans ever since. After returning from Everest, she spent the rest of 2023 introducing disabled vets to rock-climbing and snowboarding, and raising money for Building Homes for Heroes, which provides accessible homes to soldiers and first-responders who were injured in the line of duty. More coverage in our May issue.
Aimee Copeland
Few people have done more than Copeland to make wilderness accessible to amputees and people with other disabilities. Her nonprofit, All-Terrain Georgia, set the national standard for all-terrain wheelchair programs, and the movement flourished in 2023. Following Copeland’s lead, more than a dozen states now offer rugged, rough-and-ready wheelchairs at state parks, beaches, and other outdoor venues. “Being able to experience nature is an amazing thing for someone who cannot walk,” one ATC user told Amplitude. “Being in an ATC has given me that sense back again.”
