Early Life
Kelly has always identified herself an athlete, and grew up participating in alpine ski racing, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, softball and swimming. Even into her teens, Kelly balanced many different sports throughout the year. But when Kelly went to the Green Mountain Valley School for high school, the focus became alpine ski racing.
As early as the age of 7, Kelly was called a ‘tiger’ for her hard charging, confident ski racing style. As she grew older, Kelly worked her way up in the national rankings, particularly in the fast speed events of Downhill and Suger G, qualifying to race in the US National Championships her junior and senior years of high school. With the success came plenty of attention from collegiate ski programs.
Collegiate Career
Skiing for the Middlebury College NCAA Alpine Ski Team was Kelly’s dream. She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her parents and her sister Lindsay, all ski racers as well. She was accepted to Middlebury College as a member of the class of 2008.
Her Sophomore year, Kelly really began to put the pieces together, earning an NCAA career-best 8th in the Dartmouth College Carnival Giant Slalom. In the first race of the following weekend at the Williams College Carnival, she earned another impressive finish. If all went well, her grandparents were coming from Michigan the next weekend for another event, and Kelly hoped to represent Middlebury in front of them and the hundreds of students who line the Middlebury Snow Bowl course. Unfortunately, that dream would have to wait.
Injury and Rehabilitation
Kelly’s dream was cut short on February 18, 2006 on the second day of the Williams College Carnival. Kelly came over a knoll and caught an edge on an icy patch. She fought to stay in the course but her ski edge grabbed and she was catapulted off the trail, striking a lift tower stanchion. She severely damaged her spinal cord injury at the T 7-8 level, fractured 4 ribs, fractured a vertebra in her neck, and a collapsed a lung. Kelly underwent 10 hours of immediate surgery to re-align and stabilize her spine at the Berkshire Medical Center.
After her first 2 weeks in the hospital, Kelly was transported to Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Denver, Colorado, where she spent the next two and a half months undergoing rigorous rehabilitation for what would become her new life in a wheelchair. She left Craig ready to navigate life’s new challenges with the same tenacious spirit that had been the root of her prior athletic successes.
Life Post-Inury
Kelly returned to Middlebury College in the Fall of 2006 after more than 3 months spent in hospitals and another 3 spent growing accustomed to familiar places such as home but from the unfamiliar perspective of a wheelchair. At Middlebury, she remained an active member of the Ski Team, learning to ski in a monoski on the same slopes where she had raced and trained alongside her teammates. Two years after her injury, then a Senior, Kelly foreran the Middlebury Carnival in her monoski, completing the dream of her Sophomore year.
Kelly graduated on-time from Middlebury in the Spring of 2008. In January of 2009, Kelly was honored with the NCAA Inspiration Award, a select award bestowed by the NCAA only when deserving. Kelly worked for ESPN for a year upon graduation prior to moving to Boston to pursue a new dream: becoming a nurse.
Today
Kelly has spent over a decade as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and continues to be heavily involved in the direction and growth of the Kelly Brush Foundation. She continues to ski, bike, golf, play tennis and, when able, surf. In April 2016, Kelly and her husband Zeke welcomed their daughter Dylan into the world, and in March 2019 their second daughter Nell was born.
The inspiration in her story is in the ease and grace with which she continues to live a normal, fulfilling life. It is that attitude and mindset that the Kelly Brush Foundation tries to inspire in and share with others living with paralysis.
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Kelly Brush
About the KBF
The Kelly Brush Foundation inspires and empowers individuals with spinal cord injuries to lead active and engaged lives.
Learn more about Kelly’s organization and how her speaking supports this mission at kbf.org.