Carlana Stone
Founder & President

Carlana Stone, author of the acclaimed book “Never Give In, Never Give Up”, was paralyzed in a car accident at age 17. In the blink of an eye, Carlana went from cheerleader and gymnast, to paraplegic. Not adhering to the stigma and physical restraints of her injury, Carlana forged ahead. Despite her disability, she has learned to scuba dive, sky dive, sail, water and snow ski, and pilot airplanes, embracing each challenge as an opportunity.

Carlana has embraced her wheelchair as a force, rather than a hindrance. And when she was just 25, Carlana became the first wheelchair-bound reporter for ABC in Miami, featured 5 days a week on the evening news.

As the station’s dynamic human-interest reporter, viewers could  not help but be influenced by Carlana’s infectious enthusiasm and genuine concern for the people behind the stories she shared during her 2-year tenure on WPLG-TV.

Broadening her scope, Carlana moved to Los Angeles to launch a career in talk shows, producing an array of daytime talk shows, such as Leeza,  Judge Judy,  and Ben Stein, just to name a few. She then went on to produce and Senior Produce Prime Time Network Specials. Currently, Carlana is the Senior Casting Producer for “Intervention” the award-winning, documentary series on A & E.

Carlana is also a highly sought-after International Speaker; delivering keynotes in venues ranging from Britain’s illustrious House of Lords to being highlighted at FAWCO International’’s annual convention in Berlin, Germany, to keynoting for one of America’s largest employers, Entertainment Partners, in Los Angeles.

Over the last 2 decades, Carlana has toured a variety of schools here in America and England alike, including world-renowned, TASIS, The American School in England. Her passion is to provide content-rich opportunities, a warm and nurturing environment where diversity is prized. Through her personal struggles, Carlana empathizes with others, and can share her unique insight to be a vehicle for empowering children and young adults to believe that ANYTHING IS and CAN BE POSSIBLE.

Carlana is called on regularly to represent and speak on behalf of a number of charities, namely the Christopher Reeve Foundation  and the National Pain Foundation, which honored Carlana as 2007’s Pain Awareness Patient Ambassador of the Year.

Fueled by her own philosophy, “Pay no attention to boundaries,” in 2007, Carlana founded The Courage Community  and is using her own experience in the face of adversity to help our injured soldiers realize their true potential and achieve their dreams. Carlana states:

“It is my dream and ambition to offer our injured Veterans the hope of a better future, and a richer quality of life. We will be sponsoring initiatives, which will provide our service men and women access to resources to address even their most basic needs - programs that have enhanced the quality of my own life in spite of my disability. The sky’s the limit!”

We will leverage all potential leads from focus pieces with Carlana Stone in television, radio, and print. The Courage Community  will schedule events, appearances, and targeted awareness campaigns in virtual communities as well as launching grass-roots campaigns in local communities, establishing Chapters nation-wide, engaging community members to become directly involved in supporting their own hometown heroes.

To date, Carlana has been featured on Larry King Live, appeared as a feature story on the Montel Williams Show, featured on CBS’s The Early Show and Life Moments on NBC. Carlana has appeared on network affiliates nation-wide, fostering relationships with key entities in the media. Carlana has been featured in Redbook  magazine, and was chosen as one of Woman’s Day’s  “Women of the Year 2006.”

Following her record-making solo-flight as one of the First Female Paraplegics in the world to solo-pilot a single-engine aircraft, Carlana was featured on every local LA news affiliate, including, KABC, KNBC, KCBS, KTTV; Carlana was also featured on numerous local and national radio shows including, KABC and KFWB; Carlana has appeared in several articles in a host of national and international flight magazines.

And in March 2008, Carlana was chosen among thousands around the country to become one of ten contestants to compete on Oprah Winfrey's Big Give.