Greetings: I am Danielle “Dani So Fancy” Mitchell and I am a Marketing Professional. About 2 years ago, I found myself becoming extremely passionate about the injustice going on not only in the world but in my own backyard. I got so sick and tired of signing petitions and following movements, but seeing no fruits of that labor. So I thought to myself that I have a degree in Marketing and Management from the University of Illinois-Champaign. In addition, I have completed the Harvard Business School CORe Readiness program.   This program includes Business Analytics, Economics for Managers and Financial Accounting. I have the work experience to match my education, so why not utilize those skills for personal business branding that makes a difference? Marketing allows me to fulfill my creative spirit while using my social media platforms and relationships to create an end result that can benefit the Melanin Community.

Britney Robbins is the founder and CEO of The Gray Matter Experience, a non-profit organization founded in 2016 to help Black high school students learn about and practice entrepreneurship. Britney hails from Quincy, IL but moved to Chicago in 2009 after graduating from The University of Illinois where she received her B.A. in Rhetoric with an English minor.

Britney has worked within Chicago’s entrepreneurship and tech community for the past four years working within some of Chicago’s top venture capital firms and incubators including Sandbox Industries, Lightbank and 1871. She has been recognized as one of Ariel Investment, BMO Harris and WVON’s 40 Under 40 Gamechangers, Essence Magazine’s Woke 100, a finalist for Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 People’s Choice Award, featured on Fox32, Chicago Inno, BlackEntrepreneur.com, DNAInfo Chicago, Chicago Tribune, and Essence Magazine for her work through Gray Matter. She was also named as one of five investees for Goodcity Chicago’s Women’s Innovation Fund.

Prior to starting The Gray Matter Experience, Robbins worked for Honda Financial Services for two years post graduation. Upon leaving HFS, Britney worked for Chicago-based startup, Doggyloot as an Account Executive. It was in this role, she realized her interest in entrepreneurship as the company was a portfolio company under Sandbox Industries, a local venture capital firm. After Doggyloot, she worked for three years as a Program Manager for Future Founders, a non-profit exposing youth to entrepreneurship. After helping low-income students across the city learn about entrepreneurship, Britney recognized a gap that needed to be filled, thus The Gray Matter Experience was created.

Britney is passionate about the intersection of entrepreneurship, education and youth and believes in empowering others to use their passions and strengths to create opportunities for themselves. In 2015, she authored and published her first children’s book and is working to release the second in the series, this fall. Britney is committed to inspiring youth to reach their full potential and and aims to continue to create channels for them to do so.