Carly Okyle (she, her) is a self-advocate and proud New Jersey native who earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from Tufts University (go Jumbos!) and her Master’s degree in journalism from NYU (go Violets!).
Okyle has written about disabilities from various angles – both in reported pieces and in essays that reflect her lived experience with Cerebral Palsy – for publications including Time.com, School Library Journal and Entrepreneur.com, among others. Okyle has wanted to be a writer and a journalist for as long as she could remember, and she dreams of one day running a disability-centric publication. These days, she merges her writing skills with her disability advocacy as a Writing Specialist, wherein she teaches writing and literature to adults with developmental disabilities with the ADAPT Community Network (formerly United Cerebral Palsy of New York City).
Okyle served a term of service with the National Civilian Community Corps, an AmeriCorps program where she worked with a team of 10 people to lead volunteers and do hands-on participation in community service projects in the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. These projects included construction in the Ninth Ward and environmental restoration at an estuary in Alabama.
Okyle wrote a personal reflection that RespectAbility published during Women’s HERstory Month in 2020. When she’s not working on articles or screenplays, Okyle enjoys reading, baking and attempting to learn piano. She is relatively proficient in Spanish, having studied abroad in Seville, Spain, and has traveled whenever possible to destinations including France, Israel, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Italy. In addition to her writing and travel obsessions, Okyle is a tie-dye obsessed Yankee fan and a pescatarian with a huge sweet tooth who is expecting her first child with her husband this July.
