Theresa Sareo

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Theresa Sareo is a New York singer and songwriter who performs for the United States military and speaks at hospitals, schools, and companies around the world. She has released three self-produced albums: a debut in 1998, Embrace in 2000, and Alive Again in 2005. She also wrote and performed music for Hillary Rodham Clinton and spoke at a 2007 health care press conference with Clinton and Senator Chuck Schumer.

In June 2002, Sareo was hit by an impaired driver in Manhattan. She was in a coma for five days and had to have her right leg amputated. She uses a prosthetic leg named Lola. While recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, she met soldiers who had lost limbs in the Iraq War. Their stories inspired her to work with wounded veterans and to write the song “Through a Soldier’s Eyes.” She has since become a motivational speaker and was awarded the Walter Reed Medal of Strength and Courage.

Sareo became the first civilian to sing the National Anthem at Walter Reed Army Hospital and at the Army Warrior Transition Units, with support from European Command. In 2010 she toured Europe for American soldiers, sponsored by the Warrior Transition Battalion Europe and the U.S. Army Europe Chaplains Corps.

After the accident, she continued to speak and appeared on Today, CNN’s Larry King Live, and in New York Magazine. Her documentary, Theresa Sareo: Alive Again, tells her life and career. It won Audience Choice for Best Documentary at the 2012 Gasparilla International Film Festival in Tampa and Best Director of a Documentary at the 2012 NY International Film Festival (Los Angeles edition). The film was produced by Evan Ginzburg, Rye Joseph, and Sareo.