Courtney Phillips, Co-Founder of Gumbo Media and Creator of GumboFit, on Organizing, Running, and Community

Courtney Phillips is the co-founder of Gumbo Media, a storytelling platform and content engine that expands the narrative of Black life. She’s also the creator of GumboFit, a unique community powered by Nike Running that thoughtfully bridges the worlds of underrepresented populations and the fitness mainstream through a diversity of programming and content curation, while prioritizing the coalescing of Black and Brown fitness and wellness enthusiasts across Chicago to start, with a particular focus on South and West-side communities.

In this episode, Courtney and Kristen talk about how Courtney’s built a grassroots community for running, why running isn’t as accessible to Black and Brown communities as you may think, and what her big goals for the future are.

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About Kristen Geil

A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Kristen moved to Chicago in 2011 and received her MA in Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse from DePaul while trying to maintain her southern accent. Kristen grew up playing sports, and since moving to Chicago, she’s fallen in love with the lakefront running path and the lively group fitness scene. Now, as a currently retired marathoner and sweat junkie, you can usually find her trying new workouts around the city and meticulously crafting Instagram-friendly smoothie bowls. Kristen came on to A Sweat Life full-time in 2018 as Editor-in-Chief, and she spends her days managing writers, building content strategy, and fighting for the Oxford comma.