Black History Month Spotlight: Britney Robbins, 2023 Donald Stewart Fellowship Recipient

To celebrate Black History Month, the Trust will be spotlighting Black leaders and Black-serving organizations that have contributed to the betterment of the Chicago region – past and present. Check back throughout the month for more profiles.

Britney Robbins is the founder of The Gray Matter Experience, a nonprofit that aims to educate, empower, and assist Black students in creating their own businesses. The organization provides coaching, capital, curriculum, connections, and community to level the playing field for teens as they enter the entrepreneurial space. 

In 2023, she was named the fourth recipient of the Donald Stewart Fellowship, which is awarded every year by African American Legacy to an individual who embodies leadership in Chicago’s Black community. Robbins recently joined Liz Weber, content specialist at the Trust, to discuss why she founded The Gray Matter Experience, her hopes for the future, and the Black icons and leaders who inspire her.

Liz Weber: Tell me more about the work that you do with The Gray Matter Experience. And what inspired you to start it?

Britney Robbins: I relocated to Chicago after college and started working in corporate, then ended up in the venture and startup space. When I left, I transitioned to the nonprofit space and ended up working for an organization that was teaching entrepreneurship to youth, which I found a fascinating concept.

However, there were a couple things that I started to notice throughout my experiences. First, when we talk about this world of entrepreneurship, nine times out of 10, I would be the only person that looked like me in the room. For me, that was a glaring contradiction to what I know to be true of our communities. Entrepreneurship is a lifeblood and foundation of Black communities.

For me, it was an opportunity to crack the code on how we get more Black people—folks who have an interest in building wealth for themselves, their families, and communities—acclimated to the concept of entrepreneurship. How do we give them real-world experiences and resources early on in their journey so that they don’t have to wait until they’re 30, 40, 50 years old for the first time to try entrepreneurship? What resulted is The Gray Matter Experience. It’s a nonprofit based in Chicago. Our goal is to get young Black people between the ages of 14 and 24 engaged in entrepreneurship, at whatever level is appropriate for them. We aim to be the space for young Black innovation – providing coaching, capital, curriculum, connections, and community to level the playing field for teens to enter the entrepreneurial space.

LW: The Donald Stewart Fellowship includes award money to build on your work. What do you plan to do?

BR: We are in hyper growth mode right now. In the past few years, since the unrest after George Floyd’s murder, the work has been nonstop. My goal as founder has been to grow the infrastructure so that we can start to scale and have more impact. This particular gift will help us grow our team. We have gone in the last two years from being a team of one to now having a team of five full-time and two part-time. This will help us to continue to source great talent so that we can continue to deepen our impact in Chicago and reach more students.

LW: What are your hopes and dreams for the future of Chicago, and specifically, the Black community?

BR: This is a timely question. I’m not a Chicago native. I’ve been here for 12 years, so I’ve been a fly on the wall here, and just trying to better understand the politics, how the city operates, and where there are opportunities for collaboration efforts. One hope that I have for the city—because it’s so rich in resources, opportunities, and leaders—is that we find a way to make all the great things that are happening in Chicago, in their silos operate more efficiently and effectively in a collaborative way

Folks always talk about Silicon Valley. They talk about New York. They talk about all these cities as the next place for innovation and the next place for big waves of change to happen. I think Chicago is really in a space to be a leader in that conversation. But I do think it’s going to take much more collaboration, much more intentionality, much more focus on some of the smaller organizations that need more support to grow and get some traction.

LW: In the spirit of Black History Month, are there any icons or leaders, past or present, who inspire you?

BR: Leadership is changing so much for our community and the new guard has taken over. Stacey Abrams is one of them. Issa Rae is always another one who I think does a great job of networking and collaborating up and across. Bozoma Saint John is another Black woman leader that unapologetically shows up as herself and speaks truth to power. Elaine Welteroth is another one who I think has done a great job of building her name and continuing to highlight Black stories and Black excellence.

Aside from these individuals, I am just continually inspired by the resilience and the strength and the fervency at which our community continues to go after breaking through glass ceilings. I think the last few years has been a surge of the first Black this, first Black that. Just to see so many of us having seats at tables, elevated to positions of power, where we can break down some of the historical segregation and racism that has been so much a part of our history – I think it is an exciting time. It is what encourages me to keep going because I know I’m not in this fight alone.