On her 45th birthday, Regina Blye gave herself the gift of a new challenge.
Before sustaining a spinal cord injury at the age of 10, basketball was her passion. But Blye hadn’t played on a sports team since and missed the camaraderie.
She called up a wheelchair rugby team and—after becoming its only female member–spent an exhilarating season competing in the local league.
“I highly recommend pursuing something that makes you feel nervous and uncomfortable,” she says. “It isn’t about trying to make the Olympics. It’s about accomplishing goals and doing things that challenge me.”
Blye will now channel the same determination that sent her crashing joyfully down the rugby pitch into her work as the new Chief Program and Policy Officer at the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
“I can’t see any organization that has the type of experience and skill and is capable of doing what the Reeve Foundation does,” she says. “It is my honor and privilege to be working here.”
Blye brings over two decades of disability policy and advocacy experience to Reeve. For the past five years, she led the Independent Living Services program at the Administration for Community Living, monitoring compliance with the Rehabilitation Act and overseeing 155 federal grantees. Before that, as executive director of the Texas State Independent Living Council, she grew a one-person operation to 17 employees, 30 volunteers and a $2 million budget that expanded independent living initiatives across the state.
Her work has affected thousands of individuals and families living with disabilities and was recognized by President Barack Obama with a 2011 appointment to the United States Access Board.
Blye’s new role at the National Paralysis Resource Center gives her the chance to work more directly with community members.
“After 35 years of living with a spinal cord injury, I wanted to focus on the most important part of who I am,” she says. “I wanted to work specifically with people with spinal cord injuries and paralysis.”