ABOUT REGINALD

During his senior year in high school, Reginald wrote the following quotation in his class yearbook, “The mind is like a parachute; it cannot function unless opened.”  That was 41 years ago in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.  Since then, staying true to his quotation, Reggie has gone on to receive a Master of Education degree in Counseling Psychology from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

With the passing of his father in 1980, Reggie, who at that time was enrolled in a Doctor of Education program (also at Harvard), returned to St. Thomas where he was both a Unit Leader for a Community Health Center and a sportscaster for WBNB TV Ten News. Having been hit with a wave of patriotism, Reggie completed a tour of duty in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper with the elite 82nd Airborne Division where he was a Military Police Investigator.  During this time he saw combat duty in the island nation of Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury. 

Following his tour of duty, Reggie was hired by Project Return Foundation, Inc., where he rose through the ranks to become their Senior Director for Substance Abuse Services.  As life is filled with many twists and turns Reggie did a stint in prison for five years, became addicted to crack cocaine and had periods of homelessness from 2009 to the present. 

He currently is receiving housing through Urban Pathways and case management services through BRC.  Reggie’s creativity is apparent in his beautiful photographic images from the Through the Eyes of the Homeless Exhibit.  Reggie is also in the final stages of his memoir entitled, “Up from My Ashes, Saved by His Grace: From Harlem to Harvard to Homelessness, A True Story.”