Possip's Founder & CEO, Shani Dowell is a parent and educator at heart. A graduate of Howard University and Stanford Graduate School of Business, Shani started her career at Bain & Co. and helped launch The Posse Foundation's first national expansion. Shani has been a middle school Math teacher in Houston, and was the Founding Executive Director of Teach For America in Nashville. In 2017 Shani founded Possip, a technology company that helps schools, districts and communities routinely hear from those at the front lines - starting with schools and parents. Possip has grown to over 100 schools across 16 states and over 50,000 parents. In December of 2019 Shani became the first Black woman in Tennessee to raise over $1 million in venture funding - and joined the first 50 Black women in the nation to meet this milestone. Shani is an ex-officio member of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center Board where she is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Shani lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and their 2 kids.