About
Founder
Dr. Tracie Q. Gilbert
There is a particular kind of attention Black teen girls need — and a particular kind of woman who knows how to give it. Dr. Tracie is one of those women, with decades of evidence to prove it.
The CommYOUnity is the architecture of that attention, given to far more girls than any one person can reach by herself.
Lived Experience
That's not a footnote; it is foundational context. Dr. Tracie knows firsthand the experience of Black girlhood, as well as the profound difference good mentorship and community can make in a teen's life—both in the immediate and long term.
Scholarship
Dr. Tracie is an award-winning, published scholar of Black life, adolescent development, and the systems & schemas that touch our daughters' lives. Thoughtful about both the issues AND how they get addressed.
Practice
Dr. Tracie has 25-year-long history in education and youth development, including direct service experience in out-of-school time, pre-college and health education spaces. The CommYOUnity is ultimately her commitment toward marrying her experiences to the spaces young people frequent most.
Black women and girls are navigating one of the most complex developmental moments in recent history—yet the tools available to support them during this time have simply not kept pace with that fact. Black teen girls deserve to participate in a tech space that was built with them in mind—not adapted, not translated, and not approximated. They also deserve to be safe—with women who prioritize the best experiences for both them and themselves.
The CommYOUnity exists to provide space that is warm, safe, smart, and ours. We're building it now because the gap can't keep waiting for somebody else to notice.
Whether you arrived here as a Black teen girl, a caregiver, an investor, or a grant funder — Dr. Tracie is qualified, prepared, and ready to take good care of everyone involved. That's the deliverable you can count on most in this project.