A New Generation of Purposeful Leaders
The Hanger Foundation is building its inaugural Emerging Leaders Board, a community of young professionals committed to advancing our mission and deepening impact in the mobility healthcare space.
I have witnessed the truly life-affirming impact a properly fitted and functioning prosthetic can make in someone’s life who would never be able to access it otherwise. I am thrilled to be a part of helping build more opportunities for these individuals!
Cali Livingstone, Director of Customer Operations at LUCI
On September 19, 2026, the Hanger Foundation will host its annual Night to Inspire gala at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. The evening will bring together donors, advocates, and community members to honor the resilience of people living with limb loss and limb difference, capped by a celebration concert hosted by country star Rhett Akins.
To lead the charge in the months ahead, the Foundation has formed its inaugural Emerging Leaders Board (ELB), a cohort of passionate young professionals tasked with serving as ambassadors for Night to Inspire, supporting event planning and outreach, cultivating sponsors and community partnerships, and contributing creative ideas that elevate awareness, impact, and fundraising.
The board’s formation is both strategic and symbolic. Last year, Night to Inspire raised more than $700,000 for the Foundation’s mission. The Emerging Leaders Board is designed to deepen that momentum by adding new networks and creating a generation of young leaders invested in funding and support for those impacted by mobility challenges.
The group reflects the kind of cross-disciplinary energy the Hanger Foundation is looking to harness. Cali Livingstone, who leads customer operations at LUCI, a Nashville-based health tech startup that designs smart sensor systems for power wheelchairs, spent the first half of her career in global humanitarian disaster response, including on-the-ground work following the 2013 Sichuan Earthquake and the 2015 Nepal Earthquake. She says what drew her to the Hanger Foundation specifically was its own instinct to respond when need is greatest.
“What especially draws me to the Hanger Foundation, though, is that it was founded when Hanger saw a humanitarian disaster, and a major need for their products and leaned in as part of a disaster relief effort to the Haiti Earthquake.” Livingstone says.
For Nicolas Griebenow the motivation is equally personal. As Co-Chairman of the inaugural Inspire Classic golf tournament, he experienced firsthand what collective generosity looks like when it translates into real outcomes for real people. That experience has stayed with him.
“I witnessed something powerful, the collective energy of people coming together to support those less fortunate, and the real, tangible difference it made in people’s lives,” Griebenow says. “That experience reinforced what I already believed: that giving back is not optional, it is a responsibility.”
Griebenow also sees the board as a professional opportunity unlike any other he has encountered. A finance career built on analysis and strategy, he says, does not naturally create space to learn from leaders across disciplines. The Emerging Leaders Board does.
“I am eager to contribute what I know, grow in what I don’t, and be part of something that is far bigger than any one individual.”
Ready to Join Us?
If you’re a young professional passionate about serving the limb loss and limb difference community and looking to make an impact, we want to hear from you. The Emerging Leaders Board welcomes new perspectives, backgrounds, and networks.
Interested in joining? Email us at [email protected].
Learn more about Night to Inspire, our annual gala supporting the Foundation’s mission.
