Chantrise Sims-Holliman Triumphs Over the ‘Triple Threat’

In 2018, Chantrise Sims-Holliman ’96 experienced a life-changing heart attack with complications that led to a double leg amputation. As a Black woman, she had already navigated the challenges of race and gender, but she found being disabled made her “more unseen” as she confronted what she calls a “triple threat.” 

“Becoming disabled didn’t relieve me from the racist, patriarchal behavior of people, I think it magnified it,” she wrote in a 2021 narrative. “Not only was I of a weaker gender and an inferior race, but now I was also invisible.” 

Initially after becoming disabled, Sims-Holliman made it a point to remain invisible. “Things were raw for me,” she candidly recalls. “I had to start from scratch and spent lots of weeks and months just bemoaning my life.”  

Things shifted in 2019. She drew strength from her strong faith and “connection with the Divine.” Then there was her daughter, who insisted that Sims-Holliman honor a prior commitment to attend The Annual Girlfriends Brunch — where, it turns out, she received a Standing Ovation Award for perseverance.  

“Receiving the award was pivotal; it hit me that I wanted my life back,” Sims-Holliman says. “And that’s where one of my most important character traits surfaced: I’m stubborn as hell. I want what I want, when I want it. And you can’t tell me that I can’t have it.”  

Suddenly, accepting “invisible” wasn’t an option. Two years after the heart attack, Sims-Holliman launched Resilient and Winning, a business aimed at sharing her story and empowering others to thrive after setbacks.  

Her approach — transparency and authenticity sprinkled with a quirky sense of humor — is working. In 2020 Sims-Holliman was named Influencer of the Year by the Kingdom Image Awards. In 2022, she won The IncredibleHER Award Strength of a Woman Award. Her TEDx Talk, “How Cognitive Flexibility Saved My Life,” has more than 28,000 views and encourages a “thinking on your feet” mindset.  

“Without cognitive flexibility,” she says in her TEDx Talk, “we run the risk of sacrificing all of our hopes and our aspirations, and we can find ourselves sinking into a perpetual state of purposelessness.”

Experience Sims-Holliman’s full TEDx Talk.

A VOICE EMBRACED 

Spend a few minutes with Sims-Holliman, and her confidence, energy and bright smile radiate. She’s a natural in front of a crowd, though she admits it wasn’t always that way.  

“When I came to Bentley, I was very shy and unsure of myself,” Sims-Holliman says, emphasizing gratitude for prominent influences on campus: her father, John Sims, Jr., who was on staff and served in various leadership roles; Earl Avery, a longtime and beloved champion of diversity and inclusion; and Associate Professor of Experience Design Mary Marcel (then Mary Foertsch). 

“I found my voice in Mary’s class,” Sims-Holliman says. She vividly remembers the first time she had to give a speech in class. “Mary just wrapped her arms around me and told me that I was going to be great, because I didn’t have a choice. I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ There was no option for me not to be great, because Mary wasn’t going to let me hide.” 

DO IT SCARED

Those kinds of experiences didn’t just inform Sims-Holliman’s impressive public speaking career; they also inspired her to become an educator.  

“When I consider the good teachers I had, it’s about how they made me feel, how they empowered and inspired me,” she says. “So I brought all of that into my own classroom.” 

Sims-Holliman — who won Bentley’s Dr. Earl L. Avery MLK Leadership Award in 2018, three months before her heart attack — has more than two decades of experience in education, in roles from teacher to director of professional learning. 

An English major at Bentley, it’s not surprising that her list of accomplishments includes numerous books, including “TeachStayLove: A Reflective Journal to Help You Stay in the Profession You Love;” “Shoes Without Feet: A Journey of Strength, Hope, Obstacles, Encouragement, and Success;” and “Noah Had an Ark. You Need a R.A.F.T.: Resilience and Flexible Thinking.” 

Though Sims-Holliman shies away from being called “an inspiration,” her impact speaks for itself. The advice she has shared with students over the years is something she’s had to lean into herself. 

“Do it scared, whatever it is: applying for that job, joining that student club, giving a speech, asking for help. And the interesting thing about doing something scared is that once you’ve done the scary thing, it’s not as scary anymore.”