Kari Miller

Location: San Antonio, Texas  

Kari Miller believes in the power of sports to rehabilitate mind and body. Since she lost parts of both of her legs in 1999 while on reserve in the Army, it has become her life’s work. During Miller’s own recovery, she played adaptive basketball, then volleyball. In 2006, she joined the U.S. National Sitting Volleyball Team, which went on to win silver in Beijing and London. Now, Miller, a retired sergeant who served with the U.S. Army, helps other veterans recover with adaptive sports: Her employer, Lockheed Martin (No. 64), has dispatched Miller to work with the Air Force’s Wounded Warriors program, where she serves as a community coordinator and head coach of the Air Force sitting volleyball team. “It’s rewarding to show folks what they can do,” Miller says. “I tell them, ‘You didn’t even think about doing this, but because I forced you, now it’s part of your life.’”