Bio

“… charismatic … a gifted storyteller …”

The Washington Post
Tiniest bio

Twanna A. Hines, M.S. (she/her/femme), founder and CEO of FUNKY BROWN CHICK, is an award-winning sexual health educator, healthy relationships advocate, and entrepreneur.

Tinier bio

Twanna A. Hines, M.S. (she/her/femme) is an award-winning sexual health educator, healthy relationships advocate, and social entrepreneur. Founder and CEO of FUNKY BROWN CHICK, she has appeared on CNN, NPR, Sirius, CBC, Paris Première, and in documentary films.

Tiny bio

Twanna A. Hines, M.S. (she/her/femme) is an award-winning sexual health educator, healthy relationships advocate, and entrepreneur. She specializes in social impact entertainment. A Sundance Creative Change alum, she has written for many magazines and news outlets, including NBC News, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Time Out, Mashable, Fast Company and The Huffington Post. She has been interviewed by outlets from coast to coast, from the San Francisco Chronicle to The New York Times. Founder and CEO of the creative enterprise FUNKY BROWN CHICK, she has appeared on CNN, NPR, Sirius, CBC, Paris Première, and in documentary films.

Committed to reducing violence and increasing security, she is a member of the Truman National Security Project.


Full Bio

Twanna A. Hines, M.S., (she/her/femme) is an award-winning sexual health educator, healthy relationships advocate, and entrepreneur. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Sirius, CBC (Canadian National Radio), Paris Première (French Television) and in documentary films. A Sundance Creative Change alum, she has written and performed two sold-out, critically acclaimed, one-woman theater shows. She has also written for NBC News, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Time Out New York, Lifetime, Mashable, Nerve, New York Press, Fast Company and The Huffington Post. She has been interviewed by outlets from coast to coast, from the San Francisco Chronicle to The New York Times.

She was the first nationally syndicated print newspaper African American woman sex columnist. Her column for Metro international newspapers’ U.S. editions reached 1.7 million people.

Twanna has been called a gifted storyteller by The Washington Post. She speaks at colleges, conferences, nonprofits and other events, including 92Y Tribeca, South by Southwest (SXSW), MoCADA, Museum of Sex, and Create Good. Harvard University, Wellesley College, Northwestern University, and others have brought her to their students to talk about respect and communication.

Throughout her career, Twanna has worked directly for organizations promoting social good. In the private sector, she directed AndACTION, a project that taught nonprofits how to leverage important storylines in film and television to spark social change for various causes. For Fortune 500 company Land O’Lakes, she led digital efforts to reduce global hunger by integrating food security messages into radio programs reaching women in Africa.

Prior to that, in New York City, Twanna learned the art of successful print media pitching while embedded in the communications / public affairs department at Newsweek, where she also served as the magazine’s liaison to the student publication Current. She consulted for BBC Worldwide supporting research and media outreach initiatives. At Planned Parenthood, she led edutainment programs to reduce teen pregnancy. Her programs won Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Excellence Award for Special Efforts Serving Teens.

Earlier, she managed The University of Chicago’s professional education and training programs taking students to film festivals and theater programs around the globe, using the arts to promote lifelong learning. In that capacity, she led a partnership with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company and also managed a portfolio of film instructors that included film critics Roger Ebert, Michael Wilmington, and Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Twanna began her career working for the U.S. Department of State at the American Embassy in The Hague, supporting compliance with international entertainment law to protect U.S. entertainment companies.

Having amassed decades of relevant education, training, and experience, Twanna founded a pop culture, entertainment, and data analytics firm, FUNKY BROWN CHICK, Inc. Partner with her firm to grow your audiences and to raise funds using digital technologies.

Committed to reducing violence and increasing security, she is a member of the Truman National Security Project.

She has a B.S. in sociology, cum laude, from Illinois State University, and she was recently inducted into the university’s Steve and Sandi Adams Legacy Hall of Fame. Her M.S. degree is from Florida State University, and attended post-graduate studies at New York University and Universiteit van Amsterdam. A tech geek, she’s had an online presence since the 90s—coding her first website from <html> to </html>.

Raised in the cornfields of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, she penned her first op-ed at age 17. Written for her hometown newspaper, The Daily Pantagraph, it was a letter to the editor about why sports are good for girls.

Having lived in New York City, London, Chicago, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, The Hague, and Washington, D.C., she is fluent in Dutch and English. Her eldest cat, the great Catsby, only meows in English; her younger one, Fitzgerald, is a total asshole who refuses to speak to anyone.

We’re glad you’re here!

FUNKY BROWN CHICK is a creative social enterprise founded by Twanna A. Hines. We’re creating a better world by producing artistic projects and by partnering nonprofits, government agencies, small business owners, and artists.

900 Wayne Avenue, Suite 8142

Silver Spring, 20910

smile@funkybrownchick.com

+1 (202) 643- 3492‬