To say Christy Reeves has veered in a few directions professionally wouldn’t do justice to her career path. Though as far as the New Orleans native and transplanted Capital City resident is concerned, she’s just getting warmed up.
She describes recently turning 40 as “great because you’ve got some life experience, but you’re still young enough to know what you’ve got left to accomplish,” adding, “I’ve had this beautiful, bizarre career, but I really feel like there’s still a lot of work left to do.”
Reeves was a theater major at LSU and still composes plays. She began her working career as a librarian, and has gone on to serve at various levels with major organizations around the state, including a stint as CEO of Audubon Girl Scouts.
The latest leg of Reeves’ winding road took her to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, where she is director of community relations. She is also executive director of the BCBSLA Foundation, the subsidiary that oversees the company’s charitable works.
In those dual capacities, Reeves oversees a $1.8 million philanthropy budget, anchored by two cornerstone programs called the Angel Award and Smart Bodies.
That’s where the ebullient Reeves has been best able to exercise her ethic of care, which she says was ingrained in her from her earliest days. She grew up in a family that instilled in her the importance of always doing for those around you. And she says her parents and older sister, Jane, were always role models when it came to engaging with community service groups.
“It was just something we all did,” she says. “We were active in the community. It was kind of, ‘If you don’t like something, then be part of the solution.’ I’ve always been able to build on all those experiences and use them for whatever I do next.”
In 1993, Reeves’ sister died in a car accident. Looking back, Reeves says that tragedy, more than any other event in her life, reinforced her determination to make every day one where she made something around her better. Nearly 20 years later, Reeves routinely accomplishes that goal—as others around her have noticed.
“She’s a person who is very positive and full of energy, and she truly cares about the different groups she works with,” says Dawn Cantrell, vice president of care and delivery transformation at Blue Cross. “Her focus is on making a better Louisiana, and she worked hard at getting people educated in the areas where they can help do that. Her work is her life and her life is her work, and it’s all positive.”
Melding together her life and work helps explain why Reeves isn’t shy about singing the praises of the Angel Award and Smart Bodies, the two programs she’s most closely connected with in her role at the insurer.
The Angel Award was established 16 years ago to recognize individuals who positively impact the lives of children across the state. Every year the BCBSLA Foundation selects eight “angels,” for whose work a $20,000 contribution is made to the charity of their choice.
“These are people who really make you humble,” Reeves says. “A lot of times they have dealt with something in their life like the loss of a child and have taken that and turned it into something incredibly positive.”
Smart Bodies is a program launched seven years ago that combats childhood obesity in Louisiana by teaching children “how organs work and what happens when you eat fruits and vegetables and how exercise positively impacts their bodies.” An estimated 50,000 children are involved in the program.
More recently, the BCBSLA Foundation was instrumental in the design and introduction of the Louisiana 2-Step mobile app, which provides tools and resources to help people follow two steps to a healthier life: Eat right and move more. Users can track physical activity, chart food intake and have quick access to visual portion guides and lists of health-friendly snacks.
“Sometimes eating right and living better can be very intimidating,” Reeves says. “We just wanted to simplify how to eat right and how to live healthy.”
For Reeves, that’s just the latest project to help her fulfill her ever-changing life goal—a task Cantrell says her coworker has “taken to a different level.”
“Everything I’ve done has been so different and fun and rewarding,” Reeves says. “I love doing things that impact our state in a positive way.”
