In the first episode of the We’re Not Stumped podcast, I’m very honored to have Nicole Kelly as a guest. Like me, Nicole is an congenital amputee of an upper extremity. Nicole was Miss Iowa 2013 and competed in the Miss America Contest in 2014 and she talks about that experience in this podcast. Nicole was also featured on the The Today Show as well as countless other shows and platforms. She has a masters degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University and and has proudly spoken at hundreds of K-12 schools and given educational lectures at universities across the country. Nicole has spoken at corporations including Google, Microsoft, Allstate, and Riot Games. She now works for Coapt, the maker of Complete Control advanced pattern recognition myoelectric control technology for upper limb prosthetics. In this video she will demonstrate her incredible prosthetic made possible by the great team at Coapt. If you are an amputee, a family member of a person with limb loss or a person in the support community, I would love to have you on the show. Please contact mike@mikebolland.com to be considered as a guest.
More Info
Nicole Kelly website: https://www.missnicolegkelly.com
Coapt website: https://coaptengineering.com/
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Listen on Spotify
Access to the resources, support, and equipment needed after limb loss can change a person's life—but for many, those essentials remain out of reach. In this episode of We're Not Stumped, host Mike Bolland spotlights Amputee Aid and A Leg Forever, two organizations dedicated to helping people with limb loss reclaim independence, confidence, and hope. While each organization has its own unique mission, both are committed to removing barriers by providing financial assistance, equipment, peer support, and other critical resources that help individuals move forward after amputation. Mike discusses why a supportive community can make all the difference during recovery and beyond. Whether you're living with limb loss, supporting someone who is, or simply looking for stories of compassion, advocacy, and resilience, this episode highlights how generosity and community can create lasting change.
What does it really take to learn to walk again after an amputation? In this episode of We're Not Stumped, Mike Bolland welcomes physical therapist John Lottes, DPT, Clinical Supervisor at First Step Physical Therapy and an adjunct professor who specializes in prosthetic rehabilitation. John shares how an unexpected career path led him to working with individuals with limb loss and explains why the biggest hurdle in recovery often isn't physical—it's confidence. Together, Mike and John discuss the importance of celebrating small victories, building trust with your rehabilitation team, and developing the mindset needed to regain independence.
Sometimes, the biggest changes don't happen in a lab—they happen with a few carefully chosen words. In this episode of the We're Not Stumped podcast, I want to personally thank the LN-4 Hand Project (https://ln4handproject.org/) for updating its mission statement to better reflect the entire upper limb limb loss community. For many years, organizations have understandably focused on a specific group of individuals. But recognizing and including everyone living with upper limb loss and limb difference sends a powerful message: you belong, your story matters, and you are seen. As someone born without a right hand, this change means a great deal to me personally, and I believe it represents an important step toward greater inclusion across our community.
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