08-19-2026
What makes someone a leader? Is it becoming a team captain, earning a leadership title or standing in front of a room? Those things matter, but leadership actually begins much earlier. It starts with the choices you make, the habits you build and the way you serve others every day. Long before you arrive on a college campus, you're already becoming the kind of leader you'll be in the future.
At the Larsen Leaders Academy, we regularly meet leaders whose lives remind us that leadership is rarely shaped by a single defining moment. Instead, it is formed over years through everyday choices, perseverance, service and resilience. Danielle Green's story is a powerful example of those principles in action.
Today, Danielle serves as a spokesperson for Wounded Warrior Project, where she advocates for veterans who have been wounded in service to our country. But her journey to leadership began long before that role.
Danielle knows adversity firsthand, and it has shaped the leader she has become. She grew up on the streets of Chicago where those around her were addicted to drugs. She escaped and earned a basketball scholarship, but her career was hampered by injury. After college she chose to serve her country and enlisted in the Army. While serving in Baghdad, Iraq, on May 25, 2004, an RPG exploded near the rooftop where Danielle was stationed. She lost her left hand and nearly her life. As she lay wounded on that rooftop in Baghdad, she was able to garner the strength to stay alive. She had her team of fellow soldiers whom she trusted with her life. She thought of her purpose, her why — a dream to someday be a mom. She wondered if that was possible.
It would be easy to quit when faced with some of the adversities Danielle faced. She survived all these trials and tribulations. She earned the Purple Heart. She earned the ESPN Pat Tillman Award for Service. And she became a mom.
Before you move on to the next chapter of your life, take a moment to think about your own story. What experiences have shaped who you are today? What habits are you building? How are you serving others? The leader you will become tomorrow is being shaped by the choices you make today.
Brad Alge
Managing Director
Larsen Leaders Academy
