Kick the Door Down, Then Pull Up Chairs: Meet Dr. Chanelle Reynolds

Dr. Chanelle S. Reynolds lives by a mantra, and she is happy to say it out loud.

Kick the door down, then pull up chairs for others.

It is the throughline of a career that has carried her from the sales floor of a G League arena to the front office of an NFL franchise, and into rooms she once did not even know existed. For Reynolds, success was never meant to be a solo act. The whole point is holding the door for everyone coming behind her.

For anyone meeting her for the first time, she wears a lot of hats and wears them well. She is an NFL professional with the Washington Commanders, Ms. Black District of Columbia 2026, a two-time author, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a host on the REVOLT Podcast Network. In June 2025, she added another title to the list, doctor, earning her doctorate in business administration.

Her path into sports started with the Delaware Blue Coats, the Philadelphia 76ers G League affiliate, before she came to Washington in 2018 to launch the group sales department for the city's NFL team. She was on a fast track to senior leadership in ticket sales, an expert in revenue, and that was the lane she saw herself in. Then the world changed.

In the social unrest following the murder of George Floyd, Reynolds and several colleagues built the Washington Commanders Black Engagement Network, the organization's first employee resource group. Leadership leaned on her to help navigate hard conversations and hold space for Black employees at a pivotal moment. In 2021, the team asked her to lead that work full-time, a pivot she had not planned for. She prayed on it, mapped out her goals, and bet on herself, becoming the first person in the organization's history to hold the role.

From there she got to building. As the leader of the Commanders' diversity and social impact work, Reynolds launched employee resource groups, HBCU and Women in Sports pipeline programs, organization-wide heritage month celebrations, and gameday experiences like HBCU Night, Hispanic Heritage Night, and Pride Night. She also opened doors for small, local, and underrepresented DMV businesses to work with the team through vending and procurement, turning access into a two-way street.

Making the leap meant starting over, and she was strategic about it. She built a top tier network, positioning herself next to people doing the job at other teams and becoming a sponge, and she offset the learning curve with education, a diversity and inclusion certificate at Cornell, a Women in Leadership residency at Harvard, and finally her doctorate. She turned a scary pivot into expertise in the sports and social impact space.

The why underneath all of it is personal. Reynolds went to a small HBCU, Delaware State University, where she pledged the Delta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and she did not land her first job in sports until two years after graduation, simply because she lacked the exposure. Now she is determined to offset that curve for the next generation. I am most proud of being a people advocate, she says. That is the pull up chairs part of her mantra made real, a standing invitation for students who look like her to find their way in.

Underneath the titles is a faith that keeps her steady. The scripture she says she lives by is Matthew 6:33.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

It is the lens she brought to her biggest leap. Before she accepted the pivot that changed her career, she prayed on it and trusted that if she put her purpose first, the rest would fall into place. It did, and it has shaped how she moves ever since, purpose first, everything else after.

Her story is still being written. Reynolds calls her Ms. Black District of Columbia 2026 reign a wonderful experience, and she has a Women in Sports tea party coming to the DMV this fall. Her two books, The Success Playbook and The Art of Taking L's, are available on Amazon, and she hosts The Success Playbook Podcast on REVOLT. Through every title, the mission holds. She kicked the door down. Now she is pulling up chairs.

Follow Dr. Chanelle Reynolds on Instagram at @ChanelleSReynolds.