Candice Cook is a philanthropist, lawyer, activist, mom, cronut trademarker, and general superstar who attended REALITY Global 2015. REALITY is a Schusterman Foundation funded series of trips to Israel for globally-minded entrepreneurs. Also on that trip was Unfunded List founder Dave Moss. Engaging with networks like REALITY has been crucial to the success of the Unfunded List program and something we highly recommend to every applicant. In addition to being a REALITY participant Candice Cook is also a member of Nexus and so the two were able to catch up at the Nexus US Summit last winter.
Candice Cook is from Atlanta and attended the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt Law School with attendance at additional programs at Oxford and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Her career began in private practice as a litigator where she represented luxury hotels, television and cable executives, real estate developers, technology companies, and other corporate giants. She was a Pearl Honoree in 2009, selected as a finalist for Atlanta’s Power 30 Under 30 Award, and a winner of the Celebration Award in Law in 2012. In 2013, she was selected as the Hollywood Power Player by Hollywood & Vine Magazine and in 2014 she was selected as the Barrier Breaker award recipient for her work in the field of law and for her vast hands-on philanthropic engagement addressing education, humanitarian matters, and social justice. She appeared in the HBO documentary “Good hair,” the 2009 winner for Special Jury Prize for U.S. documentary at the Sundance Film Festival as well as the documentary Sag Harbor on the OWN network as part of the #Selma50 network campaign. She has also appeared in the American Bar Association Journal, O Magazine, Elle Magazine, The Today Show, and Sirius Radio.
Candice Cook also serves as an Advisory Executive Member for the United Way of New York’s Young Professional Board, is an Advisory Board Member for TheHistoryMakers in Chicago, works to increase engagement as a Committee Member for Jazz at Lincoln Center, served as the Young Professional Board Member for both the Apollo Theater and New York Needs You and served on the Leadership Board for the Council of Urban Professionals. For years, Candice has worked with the 12 Days of Christmas Organization in New York to provide necessities to families across the five boroughs in New York during the month of December and she has also worked to increase STEM awareness through her Advisory Board Work with the M.O.B. Accelerator and CultureShiftLabs. Most recently, Cook was proud to see her work with the rich history of TheHistoryMakers (the single largest archival collection of African-American oral history) rewarded via its acquisition by the Library of Congress. In 2014, Cook served as a Host for the Andrew Goodman Foundation Hidden Heroes Award. In addition to her legal practice, Cook is currently using her platform to aid the Ford Foundation via its Think Tank to assist with the “innovation economy” of Detroit.
Superstar isn’t a word we just throw around. Enjoy this episode.